For all the problems facing the world’s drug groups – tougher regulations, copycat products and endless lawsuits – New Jersey-based Wyeth is starting to look healthier.

With quarterly sales of about $5.6bn, it is still less than half the size of world number one Pfizer but Bernard Poussot, the group’s incoming chief executive, says Wyeth is now the third largest biotech drugmaker, having overtaken specialist group Biogen, and it is going from strength to strength.