Pfizer beat Wall Street’s expectations on revenue in the second quarter and raised its full-year revenue guidance by $1 billion, it said Tuesday morning.
The large drugmaker pulled in $13.3 billion from April through June, versus a Street consensus of $13.04 billion. That was a 3% operational growth year-over-year, or 14% when not factoring in its Covid-19 vaccine and Paxlovid. It now projects $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion for all of 2024, versus prior guidance of $58.5 billion to $61.5 billion.
The moves come as Pfizer conducts a mutlibillion-dollar cost savings plan, including $1.5 billion from a manufacturing “optimization” program that should wrap up by the end of 2027, the company said.
Pfizer’s share price $PFE immediately gained about 2% before the opening bell. After one of the worst pharma stock performances of 2023, it’s up about 6.7% year-to-date.
Mikael DolstenIt marks one of the last few earnings updates to include outgoing chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten, who will help find his successor before departing around “early next year,” the company said July 9. He oversaw a broad R&D organization for 15 years, and the company spent $5.2 billion on R&D in the first six months of 2024. He’ll leave shortly after the company starts dose optimization studies of its once-daily oral GLP-1 danuglipron, which experienced clinical setbacks.
Those studies “are intended to inform our registration enabling studies,” CEO Albert Bourla said in prepared remarks.
The New York pharma giant faces many questions about its future after a quicker-than-expected fall from a $100 billion sales peak during Covid, speed bumps in its catch-up race for an obesity drug, and setbacks in its once-grand gene therapy ambitions. It placed massive bets in oncology with its $43 billion Seagen merger last year, and it’s lagging in the RSV arena against GSK.
In an attempt to navigate the headwinds, Pfizer unveiled three rounds of cost cuts last fall, last winter and this spring. Last quarter, the company said the multibillion-dollar plans are “largely complete” and it brought a Citi analyst on board to serve as its strategy chief. More cuts came this month at two North Carolina sites.
Pfizer reeled in $845 million in the quarter from medicines out of the legacy Seagen. Cancer is one of the key pillars of Pfizer’s R&D strategy going forward.
Its Vyndaqel line of ATTR-CM heart medicines rose 71%, but the drugs could face pressure from BridgeBio and Alnylam in the coming years. Meanwhile, revenues grew 8% for its blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis, which is partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb and one of the first 10 drugs being negotiated with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Its migraine drug Nurtec ODT/Vydura shot up 44%.