Business Overview

cutting a deal with Indian generic manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories. Ranbaxy agreed to keep its generic version of Lipitor off the U.S. market until late 2011. The arrangement would provide Pfizer 20 additional months of exclusivity to Lipitor, which generated $13 billion in revenue annually. In return, Ranbaxy was granted the right to sell a generic version of Pfizer's Caduet seven years before the expiration of its patent.
 

Tobacco.

As they had for much of the previous decade, tobacco manufacturers spent 2008 contending with declining American smoking trends and looking to expand into emerging markets and diversifying their product lines. Manufacturers were betting on continued growth in less-developed countries such as China and India. Philip Morris International, which became a stand-alone company in March (separating from its parent Altria Group), began an aggressive global push of its products in countries such as Pakistan (where smoking had increased 42% since 2001) and Ukraine. By contrast, Altria's American cigarette-manufacturing operation, Philip Morris USA, faced declining domestic cigarette sales of 2.5% to 3% annually.
 

Finance.

The credit crisis that began in 2007 and the failure of several large banks and other financial institutions, combined with soaring oil and food prices, pushed the world economy into a global recession in 2008. (See Special Report.) Stock markets fell throughout the year, with all major bourses down by at least 30% and some plummeting 50% or more. In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 8776.39, a drop of 33.8% for the worst annual loss since 1931, and a plunge of 37.7% from the all-time high of 14,087.55 set in October 2007. (For Selected Major World and U.S. Stock Market Indexes, see Table.)