Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Schering-Plough Corp. plans to begin selling products in the next four years that may generate more than $7 billion in combined annual revenue, lessening the company’s dependence on embattled cholesterol pills.

The drugmaker has seven treatments in late-stage testing that may each generate more than $1 billion in peak annual sales, Carrie Cox, the company’s president of pharmaceuticals, said today in the first presentation of Schering-Plough’s research since 2005. The company said it has nine drugs in the final stages of study, and 34 in the earlier phases of human testing, the most in its history.

Schering-Plough lost 47 percent of its value this year in New York trading after U.S. prescriptions fell by a third for the cholesterol pills Zetia and Vytorin, which it sells with Merck & Co. Chief Executive Officer Fred Hassan has been firing workers and closing factories to save $1.25 billion by 2010. Schering-Plough bolstered its drug-development pipeline by acquiring Organon BioSciences BV in November 2007.

“We are reducing costs and increasing productivity in a time when the environment is full of extraordinary challenges,” Hassan told investors at the Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company’s corporate office. “The cholesterol franchise continues to be important and we are pleased with growth overseas. We are also pleased that we have many, many other products that are diversifying our company.”

Expanding Biotechnology

Hassan said the company is open to licensing and acquisitions as it looks to expand its work in biotechnology products and animal health. Schering-Plough had $3.16 billion in cash as of Sept. 30. He also said he hopes President-elect Barack Obama will appoint a new head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“There is great hope that now, as a new Congress comes in and a new administration, we will see the appointment of a strong, politically independent leader of the FDA,” Hassan said. “Obama has clearly said he is very pro innovation and we do believe the time has come for major improvements in that area.”

Schering-Plough rose 31 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $14.65 at 2:27 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The company said it will seek FDA approval in 2010 or 2011 for its most promising drug in development, its thrombin receptor antagonist, or TRA, for treating blood clots. The product may generate “multibillion dollar” annual revenue, Cox said. Analysts had been expecting the pill, which will compete with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Plavix, to start generating sales in 2011.

AIDS Treatment

Schering-Plough also expects to ask the FDA as early as next year to approve its AIDS treatment vicriviroc, which may generate as much as $750 million in peak annual sales and would compete with Pfizer Inc.’s Selzentry.

Data presented today showed that 12 percent of patients taking Schering-Plough’s schizophrenia treatment Saphris, known by the generic name asenapine, relapsed compared with 46 percent on a placebo after 26 weeks. Schering-Plough said it has been awaiting U.S. regulatory approval of the medicine since June and expects the drug to have more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Schering-Plough also reported on results from a study of its experimental hepatitis C treatment boceprevir, which showed the medicine suppressed the virus in 75 percent of patients after 24 weeks, twice the rate of those given a placebo. The results are from the second of three rounds of tests needed to gain U.S. marketing clearance. The company will seek FDA approval for boceprevir by 2011 or 2012 and expects the medicine to generate more than $1 billion in sales.

The drugmaker presented research today showing its Parkinson’s disease treatment called preladenant reduced the time that patients had uncontrolled involuntary movements, the company said. The findings were from a 12-week study of 253 patients.

The company also is adding investments in over-the-counter and animal medicines, which account for 20 percent of sales. It will begin human tests next year on a cell-based flu vaccine and an Alzheimer’s disease drug.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 24, 2008 15:04 EST