Jeff will face a quizzical and, likely, impatient crowd tomorrow when the drugmaker hosts a meeting to update Wall Street analysts and fund managers on its progress in remaking its business and bolstering its product pipeline.

But as The Wall Street Journal notes, heading into the 20th month of his tenure, Kindler doesn’t have much to show for his bold predictions that he would “transform virtually every aspect of how we do business” with “concrete and specific action plans.” The company also hasn’t demonstrated how it might solve its biggest problem: The impending loss of about $13 billion of annual revenue from the cholesterol fighter Lipitor, which could face generic competition as soon as 2010.

“We’re getting close to the end of the period where one can say it’s too early to see change,” Kris Jenner, a portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price, which holds about 48.5 million shares of Pfizer, tells the Journal. “They have a window of opportunity, but it is starting to close.” Ralph Shive, chief investment officer at First Source Monogram Income Equity Fund, echoes the thought when he tells the paper: “I’ve been a buyer (of Pfizer stock) for two years, and I don’t have a lot to show for it.” His fund holds 231,000 Pfizer shares. Since Kindler took over, Pfizer stock is down almost 15 percent.

The Journal then does something that drives Pfizer people up the wall - a comparison is made with Merck ceo Dick Clark, who has been able to “engineer a speedy turnaround in the wake of that company’s Vioxx debacle…Even though Merck is much smaller than Pfizer, just months after taking the helm, Clark rolled out specific goals and is well on track to achieving them, helping the stock rise about 28 percent since he took over,” the Journal writes.

An unnamed insider whispers to the paper that Jeff “is somewhat cautious about sticking out too far” with his plans, preferring to under-promise and overdeliver..the Street may be disappointed with what he says Wednesday because he may not be as bold” as investors prefer. “The board is as strong - if not stronger - in its support of Jeff than it was” when he took charge in July 2006. Then again, this is still Bill Steere’s board, so keep an eye on Jim Kilts, the newest board member and former Gillette ceo, who arrived last September. Is the 59-year-old a babysitter of sorts? Something more?

Finally, the paper contacts former Pfizer ceo Hank McKinnell, who was widely despised by investors and employees. It was on his watch that the pipeline began to shrivel. “We thought the pipeline was robust and we had time. There’s a lot less of that now,” McKinnell tells the paper. “The board saw the details of the pipeline, and while we were short on Phase Three candidates, Phase Two looked fairly strong.” Yes, there was torcetrapib, but other than that, no one ever accused Pfizer’s pipeline of being robust at the time of his departure. A little revisionism, perhaps?