Pfizer, which sells the impotence drug Viagra and cholesterol treatment Lipitor, said net profit was eroded by costs related to its acquisitions of Pharmacia and Warner-Lambert.

Wyeth earnings tumbled after the company took charges to restructure its manufacturing operations and pay off debt. Sales of its Premarin and Prempro female hormone replacement therapies plunged following studies linking the drugs to an increased risk of cancer and stroke.

Novartis, on the other hand, saw its profit rise 14 percent, boosted by higher sales of its cancer drugs Gleevec and Zometa and heart drugs Diovan and Lotrel.

Although drug sales for all three companies rose, charges took their toll on Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, and Wyeth, the 10th largest.

The drug industry has become increasingly plagued by the need to take charges for product liability lawsuits, investigations into marketing practices, restructuring and job cuts.

Among the charges taken by Pfizer was one for recalled diabetes drug Rezulin and another for costs arising from a government investigation into Warner-Lambert's marketing of its epilepsy drug Neurontin.

Wyeth has taken more than $16 billion in charges over the past few years for liabilities related to its withdrawn "fen-phen" diet drugs.

Pfizer's net income fell to $602 million, or 8 cents a share, from $2.86 billion, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding charges, profit rose to 53 cents a share from 48 cents a year ago.

Revenue rose 52 percent. exceeding expectations, to $14.2 billion, boosted by sales of drugs added from its acquisition of Pharmacia Corp. And analysts expect savings from the merger to be higher than first thought. That helped boost Pfizer's shares 1.6 percent to $36.22 in early-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sales of Pfizer's Lipitor, the world's biggest selling drug, rose 14 percent to $2.65 billion, while sales of Norvasc, the world's top-selling blood-pressure drug, rose 17 percent to $1.25 billion.

At Wyeth the picture was more cloudy.

Net profit fell to $335 million, or 25 cents a share, from $1.57 billion, or $1.18 a share, a year ago, when its earnings were boosted by the sale of shares in Amgen Inc. More disturbing to investors was Wyeth's forecast that it expects 2004 earnings to fall below Wall Street expectations.

Excluding one-time items, Wyeth earned 60 cents a share, compared with 65 cents a share a year ago.

Wyeth's shares fell 5 percent to $42.40 in early-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wyeth's revenue rose 14 percent as demand for Effexor XR, its drug for depression, Protonix for ulcers and its arthritis treatment Enbrel offset declining demand for Premarin and Prempro.

Wyeth said 2004 revenue will grow 6 percent to 9 percent, in line with the 8 percent growth seen in 2003.

Novartis' fourth-quarter profit rose 14 percent to $1.36 billion, while revenue rose 21 percent to $6.73 billion. Prescription drug sales represented $4.4 billion of revenue, while consumer health care products represented $2.35 billion.

Novartis forecast high-single-digit sales growth in 2004.