Pfizer on Tuesday posted a surprise adjusted fourth-quarter profit, as the corporate’s declining Covid business loss less revenue than expected.
The corporate reversed roughly $3.5 billion in revenue related to the expected return of 6.5 million doses of its Covid drug, Paxlovid, from the U.S. government. That hit is lower than the $4.2 billion Pfizer initially expected for the return of nearly eight million doses of Paxlovid.
The corporate sees the fewer-than-expected returned Paxlovid doses as an “encouraging sign” since it indicates that use of the drug increased within the fourth quarter, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer Dave Denton told CNBC in an interview.
Pfizer’s Covid vaccine raked in $5.36 billion in revenue for the quarter, down 53% from the identical period last 12 months. Analysts had expected the shot to usher in $4.99 billion in sales, in accordance with FactSet estimates.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC around 15% of the U.S. population received an updated Covid vaccine this fall and winter. That is barely lower than the 17% Pfizer forecast in October, a month after the corporate’s latest shot rolled out.
The outcomes come as Pfizer tries to blunt the rapid decline of its Covid business, which saw demand plummet to latest lows and transitioned to the industrial market within the U.S. last 12 months. As revenue suffers, the corporate is attempting to improve its bottom line and boost investor confidence through a broad $4 billion cost-cutting plan.
Here’s what Pfizer reported for the fourth quarter in comparison with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly generally known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 10 cents, adjusted vs. loss of twenty-two cents expected.
- Revenue: $14.25 billion vs. $14.42 billion expected.
The pharmaceutical giant also reiterated its full-year 2024 guidance, which it first outlined in mid-December.
Pfizer expects revenue to are available between $58.5 billion and $61.5 billion this 12 months, which incorporates roughly $8 billion in revenue from its Covid products and contributions from its recently closed acquisition of cancer drug developer Seagen.
The corporate expects to book adjusted earnings of $2.05 to $2.25 per share.
Pfizer recorded fourth-quarter revenue of $14.25 billion, down 41% from the identical period a 12 months ago, resulting from the plunge in sales of its Covid products.
For the fourth quarter, Pfizer booked a net lack of $3.37 billion, or 60 cents per share. That compares to a net income of $4.99 billion, or 87 cents per share, throughout the same period a 12 months ago.
Excluding certain items, the corporate posted earnings per share of 10 cents for the quarter. Still, Pfizer’s Covid business had a dismal 2023.
Revenue from its Covid vaccine and Paxlovid got here in at $12.5 billion in 2023. That is down 78% from their $57 billion peak in 2022.
Pfizer’s non-Covid drugs
Excluding Covid products, Pfizer said revenue for the fourth quarter grew 8% operationally.
The corporate said that growth was partly fueled by its latest vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, which entered the market throughout the third quarter for seniors and expectant moms. The shot, generally known as Abrysvo, posted $515 million in sales for the fourth quarter.
Pfizer goals to extend its RSV market share by establishing vaccination as a “year-round discussion” and expanding the corporate’s retail contracting and offerings, Bourla said during an earnings call Tuesday.
The corporate said revenue also got a lift from strong sales of Vyndaqel drugs, that are used to treat a certain style of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the center muscle. Those drugs booked $961 million in sales, up 41% from the fourth quarter of 2022.
Pfizer also said its blood thinner Eliquis, which is co-marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb, helped drive that growth. The drug posted $1.61 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 9% from the identical period a 12 months ago. Analysts had expected Eliquis to rake in $1.52 billion in sales, in accordance with FactSet.
One non-Covid product class fared worse than Pfizer hoped. A gaggle of shots to guard against pneumococcal pneumonia brought in $1.60 billion in sales for the fourth quarter. That was down 8% from the identical quarter a 12 months ago resulting from lower demand and what the corporate called “unfavorable timing of customer orders.” Analysts had expected that group of shots to book $1.97 billion in sales, in accordance with FactSet.
Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said the disappointing sales for that group of shots, which Pfizer calls the Prevnar family, might be a priority.
Bansal noted that Merck has offered encouraging commentary on prospects for its own pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine franchise, so he expects Pfizer to receive questions during its fourth-quarter earnings call about the way it plans to defend that a part of its business.
The outcomes cap a rocky 12 months for an organization that when saw revenue soar after it delivered the world’s first Covid vaccine.
Shares of Pfizer fell roughly 40% in 2023 as demand for its shot and other Covid products plummeted worldwide, causing the corporate to dramatically slash its full-year revenue forecast, record multibillion-dollar charges related to inventory write-offs and launch a sweeping cost-cutting program.
What’s more, Pfizer’s future within the booming weight reduction drug market began to look bleak last month. The corporate scrapped a twice-daily version of its experimental weight reduction pill after patients with obesity taking the drug lost significant weight but had trouble tolerating the drug in a midstage clinical study.
Investors are waiting for the corporate to unveil data on a once-daily type of that drug, called danuglipron, throughout the first half of the 12 months.
Pfizer hopes its $43 billion acquisition of Seagen, which officially closed throughout the fourth quarter, will restore investor confidence. Last month, the corporate made it clear that it was doubling down on cancer treatments after it revealed plans to create a latest oncology division that features Seagen in early 2024.
“Completing the acquisition of Seagen doubled our oncology research and resources overnight,” Bourla said throughout the call, adding that Seagen’s drugs are expected to “immediately enhance” Pfizer’s top-line growth.
But Wall Street remains to be skeptical about whether Pfizer can turn things around. The corporate’s stock is already down greater than 4% for the 12 months, putting its market value at roughly $155 billion.