Speaking on a broadcast over the Web from the CIBC World Markets Annual Healthcare Conference, the president of Wyeth's pharmaceuticals unit, Bernard Poussot, reiterated that sales of its antidepressant Effexor could increase to more than $3 billion next year.

Among the products he expects to achieve the $1 billion blockbuster status in 2003 are Effexor; heartburn medication Protonix; Enbrel, the rheumatoid arthritis product it sells with Amgen Inc.; and Prevnar, a vaccine that protects children against meningitis and blood infections. Prevnar is the only vaccine to ever reach $1 billion in annual sales, he said.

The company also still expects its hormone-replacement therapy drugs - referred to as the Premarin franchise - to sell more than $1 billion this year, despite a sharp drop in sales after a large study last year linked combination hormone-replacement therapy to breast cancer and cardiac risks. However, Poussot didn't address the heavy litigation the company faces over its diet drugs, which were part of the once-popular fen-phen combination that was pulled from the market in 1997 after being linked to heart-valve damage.

The company took a $2 billion pretax charge in the third quarter to increase reserves for its diet-drug litigation, but many people expect that number to grow.