Wyeth is one of the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare products companies and is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology products, vaccines, non-prescription medicines and animal health products. Wyeth currently operates in over 145 countries worldwide.

Fiscal 2006 was a landmark year for Wyeth, with the company achieving record levels of sales and income. In terms of pharmaceuticals sales, Wyeth achieved the notable milestone of edging into the top ten research-based pharmaceutical companies. This success was based on a strong product portfolio and the efficient implementation of the company's Project Springboard.

Wyeth's growth is based on a strong foundation of products, which includes Effexor, Protonix, Enbrel, Prevnar and the Premarin franchise. Productivity, coupled with significant investment in facilities (for example, Wyeth's new US$2 billion biotech manufacturing site in Grange Castle, Ireland) allowed the company to achieve record levels of production for its lead vaccine, Prevnar, and accommodation of the increasing demand for Enbrel, which is fast becoming one of the world's leading rheumatoid arthritis treatments.

However, sustained growth is threatened by the loss of patent protection for several products including Effexor (Wyeth's top-seller), Prevnar and Zosyn. Wyeth has assembled a strong pipeline, which may yield compounds to follow in the footsteps of these leading products. Desvenlafaxine and the 13-valent pneumococcal vaccine have the potential to succeed Effexor and Prevnar respectively, whilst the recently-launched Tygacil is anticipated to provide a boost to the Anti-infective therapeutic area, whose sales were set to suffer with the loss of Zosyn's market protection. Many of Wyeth's leading products have achieved success based on their broad range of indications, consequently Wyeth has ensured that its pipeline contains similarly broad-reaching products, with desvenlafaxine, Lybrel, bazedoxifene, Torisel and bosutinib all evidence of this strategy. Wyeth has entered 60 compounds into the R&D pipeline in the last five years, a level of efficiency and productivity which compares favourably with the company's major competitors. Should Wyeth maintain such levels, research efforts should yield further compounds to succeed the company's current product portfolio.