Top global drugmakers Pfizer Inc

and Roche Holding AG , posted disappointing profits and gave lackluster forecasts on Thursday, sending their shares lower.

The reports underscore a generally uninspiring results season for the pharmaceutical industry, which is being squeezed by tight government healthcare budgets and the loss of patent protection on many previous blockbuster drugs.

Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, projected 2010 earnings below analysts' average forecast, saying the strengthening dollar would crimp earnings.

The company also cut its profit and revenue forecasts for 2012, when it will face generic rivals to cholesterol medicine Lipitor. The U.S. patent on the world's top-selling drug lapses in November 2011. Pfizer shares fell 2.5 percent to $18.59.

Investors don't so much like seeing the guidance coming down but I think in the out year they have a good chance of exceeding that, said Tony Scherrer, a portfolio manager with Smead Capital Management, which holds about 340,000 Pfizer shares.

Roche missed full-year profit forecasts due to disappointing sales of key cancer drugs. The Swiss drugmaker confirmed its outlook for 2010 of double-digit earnings growth but said sales would rise at a mid-single-digit rate, which Bernstein analysts said was disappointing.

Roche shares slipped 0.6 percent.

Last week, AstraZeneca Plc warned earnings would fall this year and that it would slash an additional 8,000 jobs as it faces U.S. generic competition to two key drugs. U.S. drugmakers Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Eli Lilly and Co forecast 2010 earnings to rise in line with Wall Street estimates.

For a graphic comparing Roche and Pfizer share moves, see: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/0210/US_ROGPFE0210.gif

For a graphic on sales of key Roche cancer drugs: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/0210/SW_RCH0210.gif

PFIZER FALLS SHORT, ROCHE ALSO DISAPPOINTS

New York-based Pfizer reported for the first time quarterly results that included Wyeth, which was purchased last year for $67 billion as it braces for the loss of Lipitor.

Pfizer reported a fourth-quarter profit of $767 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with $266 million, or 4 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding special items, Pfizer earned 49 cents per share, a penny short of the average estimate of analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Pfizer's revenue rose 34 percent to $16.5 billion, above Wall Street expectations of $15.9 billion.

The company said it expects full-year 2010 earnings of $2.10 to $2.20 per share. Analysts on average had expected $2.27 per share. Pfizer said the strengthening dollar will crimp earnings 6 cents per share more than it had expected, as it weakens the value of overseas sales.

About 57 percent of Pfizer's $50 billion in revenue last year came from international markets.

Overall, Pfizer's business update was not what we hoped for since we assumed more flexibility on costs (primarily SG&A), non-operating expense, and viewed potential share repurchase activity as upside, Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez said in a research note.

Global Lipitor sales rose 1 percent in the quarter to $3.18 billion, as moderate U.S. declines were offset by gains overseas.

Sales of Lyrica -- used to treat seizures, nerve pain and fibromyalgia -- rose 17 percent to $820 million. Sales of impotence treatment Viagra rose 9 percent to $549 million.

Pfizer cut its 2012 revenue outlook to between $66 billion and $68.5 billion, from an earlier forecast of $70 billion provided a year ago, in part due to a divestiture tied to the Wyeth deal.

Its 2012 profit outlook was cut to between $2.25 and $2.35 per share, excluding special items. A year ago, it had forecast $2.42 per share.

We have made steady progress. One day does not make a trend, Chief Financial Officer Frank D'Amelio said in an interview, referring to Wednesday's sharp decline of Pfizer shares.

Roche is better placed than many of its rivals, given its limited exposure to generic competition, but it failed to deliver for the bulls and just missed on profit forecasts.

Core earnings per share rose 10 percent in 2009 to 12.19 Swiss francs ($11.52), just behind the average forecast of 12.33 francs in a Reuters poll after big sellers Avastin, MabThera and Herceptin netted less than expected.

Customers were working off surplus stock of products following its buyout of U.S. biotech group Genentech, hurting sales, but this process was expected to be finished by the end of 2009, Roche said.

Roche raised its 2010 sales forecast for flu drug Tamiflu to 1.2 billion from 700 million francs, in contrast to vaccine makers, who will now make less money than expected as the swine flu pandemic fades and countries cut orders.

Britain's GlaxoSmithKline will report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday and is expected to paint a picture of a difficult year ahead.

Merck , which reports earnings on February 16, may stand apart from the field because of promising experimental drugs gained in its $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough.

(Additional reporting by Katie Reid and Sam Cage in Basel, Switzerland, and Ben Hirschler in London; editing by Maureen Bavdek and Gunna Dickson)

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