The pandemic showered Pfizer with record sales. Now the end of the crisis is dragging the drugmaker down.
Its Covid-19 vaccine and drug powered Pfizer to more than $100 billion in sales last year, the first drugmaker to break the barrier. Shares soared, as Wall Street hailed the company for its savvy, fast and ultimately lucrative pivot to taking on the virus.
But many people have moved on from the pandemic. Sales from the two products dropped so much, so rapidly they contributed to Pfizer’s overall sales falling sizably in its most recent quarter compared with the period a year earlier. The company dialed back the top end of its expectations for the full-year performance.
Shares are down 31% this year to date, a loss of more than $88 billion in market capitalization. The company’s valuation has dropped by $144 billion since its 2021 peak.
Pfizer is hitting a rough spot after its Covid-19 sales nosedived and while it waits for new drugs and recent deal-making to pay off. Adding to the straits: the loss of an estimated $17 billion in annual sales by the end of the decade, when some of the company’s biggest sellers, like arthritis treatment Xeljanz, lose patent protection.
The New York-based company has talked up plans to increase revenue through a bevy of new drug approvals and their launches. It also has been using its Covid-19 cash to secure other products for its lineup. It predicts more than $10 billion in 2030 sales from its $43 billion proposed deal to buy cancer-drug biotech Seagen, as it leans more into cancer drugs.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizers-covid-boost-crashes-to-earth-51e1d0?mod=hp_lead_pos10