Pfizer (PFE) -) shares moved sharply lower in Wednesday trading after the drugmaker forecast flat revenue for the coming year, while boosting its target for cost cuts, thanks in part to slumping vaccine sales.
Pfizer sees 2024 revenue in the region of $58.5 billion to $61.5 billion, which would largely match its reiterated forecasts for sales this year of between $58 billion and $61 billion.
The group also said 2024 profit would range $2.05 to $2.25 per share, down from its legacy forecast of between $2.45 and $2.65 per share. That's thanks to a 40-cent hit from its $43 billion acquisition of cancer-drug specialist Seagen, which it plans to formally close over the coming days.
Slumping vaccine sales, which pushed overall revenue past $100 billion in 2022, forced the drugmaker to lower its 2023 projections in October.
Pfizer told investors in October it would write off around $4.6 billion in inventories of Paxlovid, its oral covid treatment, while taking a further $5.5 billion noncash charge against its third-quarter earnings.
"Pfizer’s product portfolio remains strong," CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. In 2024, Comirnaty and Paxlovid are expected to deliver combined revenues of approximately $8 billion and our remaining portfolio of combined Pfizer and Seagen products is expected to achieve year-over-year operational revenue growth in the range of 8% to 10%."
“In addition, we expect our cost-realignment program to deliver savings of at least $4 billion by the end of 2024, which puts us on a path to potentially regain our prepandemic operating margins," he added.
"We look forward to joining forces with Seagen and using our combined strengths to bring us ever closer to delivering long promised cures for certain cancers.”
Pfizer shares were marked 9% lower in early Wednesday trading to chanteg hands at $26.02 each, a move that would extend the stock's six-month decline to around 35.4%.
Earlier this month, Pfizer said it would not advance a study of its two-dose obesity treatment, danuglipron, following a high level of side effects in patients involved in the Phase II trial.
The decision marked a significant setback in Pfizer's ambitions to enter the weight-loss drug market, which is currently dominated by Novo Nordisk's Wegovy. Pfizer rival Eli Lilly (LLY) -) last month also won approval for its own weight-loss treatment, Zepbound, from the Food and Drug Administration.
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