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pfizer reported third-quarter sales and adjusted profit on Tuesday that beat expectations as the company’s coronavirus vaccine and antiviral drug paxrobid helped boost sales.
The pharmaceutical giant also raised its full-year outlook, expecting adjusted earnings per share of $2.75 to $2.95, an upward revision from its previous guidance of $2.45 to $2.65 per share. There is.
Pfizer now expects sales to be in the range of $61 billion to $64 billion, up from its previous sales forecast of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion. This includes expected revenue of about $5 billion from COVID-19 vaccines and $5.5 billion from Paxrobid.
Here’s how the company’s third-quarter report compares to Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG.
Earnings per share: $1.06 adjusted, 62 cents expected Earnings: $17.7 billion, $14.95 billion expected
The company’s third-quarter net income was $4.47 billion, or 78 cents per share. This compares with a net loss of $2.38 billion, or 42 cents per share, in the year-ago period. The company’s earnings per share for the quarter, which exclude certain items such as restructuring charges and charges related to intangible assets, were $1.06.
Pfizer reported third-quarter sales of $17.7 billion, an increase of 31% from the same period last year.
This is an important quarterly report for Pfizer, which is working to cut costs as it looks to recover from the plunge in its business and stock price caused by the coronavirus over the past two years. The company’s stock is trading at about half its pandemic-era high, and its market capitalization is about $163 billion.
Pfizer is also engaged in a proxy fight being waged by activist investor Starboard Value, which owns about $1 billion in stock.
Starboard managing member Jeff Smith claims that Pfizer failed to capitalize on the windfall from coronavirus-related products, destroying tens of billions of dollars in market value in the process. Smith blames insufficient investment in research and development by management and large acquisitions that have yet to pay off for the struggling company.
Notably, during the quarter, Pfizer withdrew from the global market a key sickle cell therapy it acquired in a $5.4 billion deal with Global Blood Therapeutics.
Starboard is calling for a major overhaul of Pfizer, saying it needs to be more disciplined with its investments.
Meanwhile, Pfizer reiterated Tuesday that it expects to achieve at least $4 billion in cost savings by the end of the year. The company announced a multi-year cost-cutting plan in May, with the first phase of the effort expected to achieve $1.5 billion in savings by 2027.
Paxlovid’s revenue for the quarter was $2.7 billion, up from $202 million in the year-ago period.
This growth is primarily due to strong demand in the United States, especially during the recent virus outbreak. Also contributing was a one-time contractual delivery of 1 million treatment courses of Paxlobid to the federal government’s national stockpile during the third quarter, which generated revenue of $442 million.
These results beat the $707.7 million in sales that analysts were expecting for Paxrobid, according to estimates compiled by Street Account.
Due to the company’s measures against the coronavirus, sales were $1.42 billion, an increase of 9% compared to the same period last year.
Pfizer said the growth was driven primarily by the timing of the vaccine’s arrival, noting that an updated version of the vaccine was approved this fall earlier than last year. This growth was partially offset by lower contractual deliveries and demand in international markets.
Analysts had expected sales for the shot to be $1.04 billion, according to Street accounts.
Growth of products other than COVID-19
Pfizer said third-quarter sales, excluding coronavirus-related products, rose 14% on an operating basis due to the effects of a cancer treatment approved by Seagen, which it acquired last year for a whopping $43 billion. Announced.
Those drugs brought in $854 million in revenue in the quarter, including $409 million from a targeted treatment for bladder cancer called Padcef and a drug that targets certain lymphomas. Includes $268 million from Adectris. Pfizer completed its acquisition of Seagen in December.
Sales of Pfizer’s Vindaquer drug, used to treat certain types of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, also boosted earnings. Sales of these medicines were $1.45 billion, an increase of 62% from the third quarter of 2023.
Analysts had expected the drug family to post revenue of $1.37 billion in the quarter, according to estimates from Street Accounts.
Pfizer said the blood thinner Eliquis, which it co-markets with Bristol-Myers Squibb, also contributed to revenue growth in the period. The drug’s sales for the quarter were $1.62 billion, an 8% increase from the same period last year.
That’s slightly higher than the $1.59 billion expected by analysts, according to Street accounts.
However, Eliquis sales could take a hit in 2026, when the new price for Eliquis goes into effect for certain Medicare patients after negotiations with the federal government. These price negotiations are a key provision of President Joe Biden’s anti-inflation law and are fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry.
Meanwhile, Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine generated revenue of $356 million in the third quarter. The shot, known as Abrysvo, was launched in the third quarter of 2023 for older people and pregnant women who can pass protection on to their unborn babies.
Analysts had expected the shooting to generate $255.4 million in sales, according to Street Account estimates.
Last week, Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine won approval for adults ages 18 to 59 who are at high risk for the disease. This decision is likely to significantly expand coverage of the RSV vaccine in the United States.
