Pfizer Covid Sales Extend Slump, Clouding Q2 Earnings Beat

 Pfizer  (PFE) - Get Free Report posted stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings Tuesday, but slowing covid sales led to a softer revenue tally that will likely extend into the back half of the year. 

Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ended in June were 67 cents per share, a 67% decrease from the year-earlier period but 10 cents ahead the Wall Street consensus forecast of 57 cents per share. 

Group revenue, Pfizer said, fell 54% to $12.74 billion, missing analysts' estimates of a $13.33 billion tally amid a pullback in sales of its Paxlovid antiviral treatment.

Looking into second half of the year, Pfizer said it saw group revenue 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 and $8 billion in sales for Paxlovid.

“Pfizer has made significant progress toward our goal to launch 19 new products and indications in an 18-month span, having executed 11 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 0.72% lower in premarket trading immediately following the earnings release to indicate an opening bell price of $35.80 each.

Seagen, which has developed treatments known as antibody-drug conjugates that target specific cancers, generated around $2 billion in revenue 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) - Get Free Report cut its full-year sales outlook amid increasing generic competition for two of its key drugs

Eliquis, a blood-thinning treatment it 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. 

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