Pfizer has been forced by US regulators to add a warning of heart risks to Celebrex's label.Meanwhile, generic competition is gaining ground on Pfizer. Sales of its epilepsy and pain medicine Neurontin fell 80 per cent to $155m. Pfizer stunned Wall Street yesterday by painting a gloomy picture for the next three years as it struggles to cope with competition from cheaper generic drugs, the loss of patents and safety concerns about Cox-2 painkillers. The ratio of workers to pensioners will fall dramatically from 3.33 now to just 2.4 by the year 2040..
It said that more than half - 4.1 million - would come from net immigration and 3.1 million from natural increase.It forecast an ageing population, as the number of pensioners increased by 9 per cent over the next six years. This is about economic fundamentals at work - low unemployment, high levels of vacancies and not particularly surprising high volumes of people coming to fill those vacancies."The Government Actuary's Department raised its forecast for the increase in population by the year 2031 by 1.3 million to 7.2 million. And in the second, due out in 2007, she will reprise the role of Mary Jane Watson for the third instalment of the Spider-Man series.. A defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein's mass murder trial who was kidnapped has been found dead after he was kidnapped. Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi was abducted by 10 masked gunmen who burst into his office and dragged him away yesterday evening, a day after he participated in the first session of the trial, acting as the lawyer of one Saddam's seven co-defendants. His body, with two bullet shots to the head, was found hours later on a sidewalk near Fardous Mosque in the eastern neighborhood of Ur, near the site of his office, said police Maj Falah al-Mohammedawi His identity was confirmed Friday, al-Mohammedawi said. Diaa al-Saadi, a senior lawyers syndicate official, said al-Janabi's family confirmed to him al-Janabi was dead "He was killed It is confirmed," al-Saadi said "This will have grave repercussions.
This will hinder lawyers from defending those held for political reasons," al-Saadi warned. The killing was the first set-back for a tribunal that has been held under tight security. Heavy protection was provided for prosecutors and judges in the Saddam trial, on the theory that they were likely targets of pro-Saddam insurgents seeking revenge. Their names have not been revealed and their faces were not shown in the broadcast of Wednesday's opening session with the exception of the presiding judge and the top prosecutor, whose identities were revealed for the first time just before the trial. But security measures do not appear to have been extended to the defence lawyers for Saddam and his seven co-defendants.
