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Despite revenue declines, Pfizer’s first-quarter earnings released Wednesday beat investors’ expectations due to slower-than-expected declines in sales of its Covid-19 products and growth in its oncology business.
The Hudson Yards-based pharmaceutical company reported first-quarter revenues of $14.9 billion, down nearly 20% from the same time last year. The declines were primarily attributed to the company’s continued declining Covid business; sales of its Covid vaccine Comirnaty dropped 88% to $347 million and earnings from its antiviral Paxlovid declined by 50% to $2 billion, financial documents show.
Although sales of Paxlovid tumbled, they declined slower than investors expected, in part because of a $771 million favorable adjustment to estimated sales declines after the federal government returned 5.1 million courses of the treatment in February.
When excluding Pfizer’s Covid products, revenues increased 11%, indicating the success of its $43 billion acquisition of oncology firm Seagen and sales of blockbuster drugs like Eliquis and Vyndaqel, CEO Albert Bourla said in an earnings call Wednesday.
Revenues from Seagen reached $742 million in the first quarter. Sales of the blood pressure medication Eliquis jumped 10%, and drugs in the Vyndaquel family, which includes Vyndaqel, Vyndamax and Vynmac, skyrocketed by 66%, primarily due to increased use of the drug for the heart disease transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, Pfizer said.
Pfizer modestly raised its adjusted earnings per share to $2.15 to $2.35, up from its previous estimate of $2.05 to $2.25.
Bourla said that the company is “cautiously optimistic” about the year ahead, affirming its full-year revenue guidance of $58.5 billion to $61.5 billion. He added that Pfizer is on track to reach its goal of $4 billion in savings by the end of this year – a key part of its growth strategy.
Pfizer’s earnings come as the company has struggled to get back on its feet in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic. As sales of Covid-19 vaccines and antiviral medications plummeted, Pfizer had to adjust its revenue expectations – a move that caused its stock price to drop to a 10-year low in December.
The company also made bets on breaking into the anti-obesity market to bolster post-Covid growth. But after a rocky start to studies of its weight-loss drug candidate danuglipron, executives have remained quiet on Pfizer’s progress. Bourla said that there was no news on danuglipron in the earnings call Wednesday, stating that the company expects to report new data in the middle of this year.
Pfizer’s stock price rose 6% by the end of the day Wednesday to $27.18.
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Amanda D'Ambrosio , 2024-05-02 11:33:05
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