A healthcare analyst says Pfizer Inc.’s second-quarter results, released Tuesday, show that the pharma giant is successfully positioning itself for future success despite its post-pandemic sales struggles.
“I think they delivered a really nice print,” Lee Brown, global sector lead for healthcare at Third Bridge, told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview.
“They’ve got a lot of initiatives going on… one I would say is their cost-savings initiative; the leadership team’s executing this plan to perfection, you’ve seen it in the gross margin, it’s what allowed for the significant EPS (earnings per share) beat.”
Brown said Pfizer has a number of core drug offerings that are doing well in the market and it has a robust pipeline which will help the company develop new products, offsetting a continued slowdown in pandemic-related pill and vaccine sales.
“If you pull back the pandemic-related sales tied to COMIRNATY and Paxlovid, a company of this size generating second-quarter revenue that increased 14 per cent year-over-year; I find that compelling,” he added.
The company said it earned 60 cents a share in the second quarter, beating analysts’ average estimate of 46 cents, while its revenue of US$13.3 billion in the quarter also edged out estimates.
Brown added that Pfizer is advancing its plan to break into the obesity drug market. Its once-per-day weight-loss pill that would rival injectable medicines like Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy is still in trials, but is set to enter mid-stage development this year.
With files from Bloomberg News.