Pfizer Covid Sales Extend Slump, Clouding Q2 Earnings Beat
By Martin Baccardax
Pfizer (PFE) – Get Free Report posted stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings Tuesday, but slowing Covid sales lead to a softer revenue tally that will likely extend into the back half of the year.
Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in June were pegged at 67 cents per share, a 67% decrease from the same period last year but 10 cents ahead the Street consensus forecast of 57 cents per share. Group revenues, Pfizer said, fell 54% to $12.74 billion, a figure that missed analysts’ estimates of an $13.33 billion tally amid a pullback in sales of its Paxlovid antivrial treatment.
Looking into second half of the year, Pfizer said it sees group revenues in the region of $67 billion to $70 billion, trimming the upper-end of its prior forecast — with around $13.5 billion in sales of its Comirnaty Covid vaccine — a and $8 billion in sales for it antiviral treatment known as Paxlovid.
“Pfizer has made significant progress toward our goal to launch 19 new products and indications in an 18-month span, having executed eleven launches thus far. We continue to build momentum in 2023, recently attaining key milestones for several products,” said CEO Albert Bourla.
“We also continue to make progress toward our proposed acquisition of Seagen,” he added. “In addition to receiving approval of the transaction from Seagen shareholders and planning for the potential integration of the two companies, we continue to work closely with regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission, and are working diligently to fulfill requests for further information from the FTC.”
Pfizer shares were marked 0.2% lower in pre-market trading immediately following the earnings release to indicate an opening bell price of $36.00 each.
Seagen, which has developed treatments known as antibody-drug conjugates that target specific cancers, generated around $2 billion in revenues last year and has a market value of around $30 billion. Pfizer generated around $3 billion in oncology-related revenues last year, the bulk of it coming from its Ibrance breast cancer treatment.
Last week, rival drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb BMY cut its full-year sales outlook amid increasing generic competition for two of its key drugs
Eliquis, a blood-thinning treatment is shares with Pfizer, booked $3.2 billion in second quarter sales for Bristol Myers, down 1% from the previous year and around $200 million shy of analysts’ forecasts.
