Jim Cramer on the prospects for Big Pharma

It's just one big expensive graveyard of stocks if you ask me. For those who own, or are thinking of owning one of these names -- I'm talking about Merck, Bristol-Myers, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline or the ultimate dog of the drug stocks, Johnson & Johnson, with its Wall of Shame'r CEO -- it's time to recognize that these stocks aren't as defensive as they used to be, not by a long shot. It's the twilight of the Big Pharma idols, and you need to be ready for it.

All of these companies are about to fall off big patent cliffs as many of the blockbusters go generic. You know what it's like when you go to the drugstore and it's a lot of money, like $400, and the next day it's $15, that's going generic. It's incredibly difficult to find new blockbusters to replace them. The drug companies have all been insisting their drug pipelines will be able to offset some of the damage from patent expiration. They say that over and over, they come on TV and say it and it's not working.

~Jim Cramer, CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, February 17, 2011