Even as Pfizer rolls out a direct-to-consumer ad campaign and talks about adding more salespeople to push the inhaled insulin device, one of two manufacturers that supply components is reducing production over the next few months, US-PharmaTechnologist.com reports. The move comes after Pfizer reported even lower Exubera sales than anticipated - just $4 million in the second quarter.

West Pharmaceutical Services, which makes about 60 percent of the device, disclosed on page 14 of the earnings report filed with the SEC last week that: “We expect Pfizer’s high inventory levels and slower-than-expected demand will affect our fourth quarter 2007 and full-year 2008 sales levels…In coordination with our customer, Nektar, we have reduced production to one shift per day at our dedicated facility beginning in the third quarter of 2007.”

Wall Street is skeptical Pfizer can recover. Jim Reddoch, an analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey, in an investor note yesterday wrote that “Pfizer will likely throw in the towel on Exubera by year-end if scripts do not pick up substantially.” And since there’s probably a sufficient supply of Exubera devices in warehouses anyway, it shouldn’t be surprising Nektar and West are scaling back. Of course, the decision doesn’t suggest much confidence in Pfizer’s promotional efforts, does it?