Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) just can't quite get it up anymore. Analysts are calling for a hold and estimating a 42 cent-a-share earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2006. This is the same as year-ago numbers and three cents less than third quarter earnings of 45 cents-a-share.

Little wonder analysts are unenthusiastic -- Pfizer is a big player that's been going through some seriously deflating times recently.

In early December, the company was forced to call off clinical trials of its "good cholesterol" drug Torcetrapib, due to safety concerns. The company had hoped to pair this drug with its main revenue driver Lipitor, the best-selling cholesterol drug ever, which brings in some $12 billion in annual revenue, when Lipitor's patent protection runs out in 2010.

Big Pharma lives and dies by its blockbuster drugs. But by the end of this year, New York-based Pfizer will have limped through three years of patent protection losses on big-name drugs like its anti-depressant Zoloft and blood pressure pill Norvasc.

The death of cholesterol drug Torcetrapib, which caused Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) stock to plunge 12% yesterday, has forced the company into purchasing growth rather than developing it. With the company's biggest drug, Lipitor, losing patent exclusivity in 2010, Pfizer must now hurry to acquire potential blockbuster drugs to maintain revenue, since its own pipeline is all but dried up. Company VP David Shedlarz said of the M&A market, "Now we will attack it with a greater sense of urgency."

This desperation means overpaying for possible franchise drugs, which means a potential early Christmas for takeover targets. One such target, according to TheDeal.com [subscription required], is Sepracor (NASDAQ:SEPR), which makes sleep and allergy drugs. Another possible target, according to W.R. Hambrecht, is Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR), a biopharmaceutical company which makes drug delivery technologies.

As Doug McIntyre noted this morning, Pfizer's drug torcetrapib was pulled off the market this past weekend as the hopes for a once-seemingly large heart attack-prevention drug were shattered in what is becoming a commonplace occurrence in the big pharma arena.

The drug industry, which has been under attack recently due to the perceived nastiness of its marketing practices, high drug prices and the safety of its products, now has some high-profile drug failures on its hands that will be hard to recover from. The torcetrapib drug was designed to prevent heart attacks and strokes by raising the "good cholesterol," or HDL. Apparently, common-sense things like exercising and eating right don't make enough money for pharmaceutical firms, so the drug torcetrapib was invented -- and then crashed and burned.

An independent safety board stopped a 15,000 patient trial comparing the combination of torcetrapib and Pfizer's bestseller, the cholesterol-lowering pill Lipitor due to 82 patients dying while the combination of both drugs was taken. A startling note about this: a statistical analysis showed the difference was unlikely to be the result of chance. Torcetrapib was a very likely culprit in those deaths.

Those who have been reading my posts about Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) already know my doubts about Prizer's new blockbuster drugs. These are the drugs that should replace the ones going off patent and into the hands of the generics companies. As I have said about the most important drug, torcetrapib, which had a high blood pressure side effect, it fixes one thing and damages another.

Yesterday, Pfizer pulled the drug [subscription required] as too many people were dying in the clinical trials. In a test with 15,000 patients, 81 of those taking torcetrapib and Lipitor died while only 52 people taking Lipitor alone passed away. With Lipitor going off patent in 2010, the new drug was the company's big bet to replace the $12 billion a year in annual revenue.

Watch the stock drop off the edge of the earth on today and stay down for some time. It already fell nearly 15 % in pre-market trading.

By the way, why do companies always release bad news on weekends?

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.