Company Tracker: Pfizer turns to acquisitions as Covid products’ sales nosedive

By PharmaCompass

2023-03-23

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Over the last five years, a lot has changed for Pfizer Inc, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies based on pharma sales revenue. From entering into an agreement with German biotechnology company BioNTech SE in August 2018 for joint research and development of mRNA-based influenza vaccines to merging its off-patent branded and generic drug business, known as Upjohn, with Mylan to form Viatris and launching Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty and antiviral drug Paxlovid during the pandemic, the New York-headquartered pharma giant has witnessed substantial transformation in the recent past.

The launch of Covid products was undoubtedly the biggest event for the 174-year-old drugmaker, propelling it to the number 1 slot in 2021 with a turnover of US$ 81.3 billion, surpassing competitors such as AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, and several others. In 2022, Pfizer further consolidated its position, with revenues exceeding US$ 100 billion, largely due to the success of its Covid products. This success of Covid products filled Pfizer’s coffers, allowing it to expand through the acquisition of smaller companies. Pfizer’s new brand identity and logo, unveiled in 2021, signaled the company's shift from "commerce to science".

Pfizer commercially operates through two segments — Biopharma, or its innovative science-based biopharmaceutical business that posted revenues worth US$ 98.98 billion in 2022, and Pfizer CentreOne (PC1), a global contract development and manufacturing organization as well as a leading supplier of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) with US$ 1.3 billion in 2022 revenues.

Pfizer’s core therapeutic areas are inflammation and immunology, internal medicine, oncology, rare diseases, vaccines and anti-infectives.

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Pfizer in acquisition overdrive: Buys Seagen for US$ 43 bn, Biohaven for US$ 11.6 bn

Pfizer has been utilizing its war chest generated during the pandemic in acquiring companies that would help grow the business when Covid is behind us and its other best-selling drugs (such as Ibrance, Vyndaqel /Vyndamax, Xeljanz and Xtandi) face expiration of patents.

In November 2021, Pfizer snapped up Trillium Therapeutics for US$ 2.22 billion. Trillium is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer. In March 2022, Pfizer acquired Arena Pharmaceuticals for US$ 6.7 billion, a company that develops novel therapies to treat immune-inflammatory ailments. Then, in Oct 2022 it completed the US$ 11.6 billion buyout of migraine specialist Biohaven. This brought Biohaven’s leading oral migraine drug in the US – Nurtec ODT (rimegepant) – into Pfizer’s fold.

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In June 2022, Pfizer completed the acquisition of ReViral Limited, gaining access to its experimental drugs used to combat respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. In October, Pfizer paid US$ 5.4 billion for blood disorder drugmaker Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT). Through this buyout, Pfizer has added GBT’s approved drug, Oxbryta, along with two other sickle cell medicines – GBT601 and inclacumab (both in mid- to late-stage testing) – to its portfolio.

And this month, Pfizer announced it will acquire Seattle-based cancer specialist Seagen for US$ 43 billion, its biggest acquisition in the recent past. “We are not buying the golden eggs,” Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said post the announcement. “We are acquiring the goose that is laying the golden eggs.”

The Pfizer-Seagen deal is also the largest biopharma acquisition since 2019, when BMS bought Celgene for US$ 74 billion. Seagen is a leader in antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology. This deal will bring four commercial medicines (Adcetris, Padcev, Tukysa and Tivdak) and a deep pipeline of ADC candidates to Pfizer’s fold.

Seagen is likely to post US$ 2.2 billion in revenues this year, which is expected to grow to over US$ 10 billion (risk-adjusted) by 2030. Earlier this year, Bourla had said the company has planned to use its “extraordinary firepower” to buy products that will deliver US$ 25 billion in incremental revenue by 2030. While Seagen will bring in US$ 10 billion, another US$ 10.5 billion will come from Arena, Biohaven, GBT and ReViral.

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Diminishing demand for Covid products, expiring patents to drag turnover down

Pfizer’s turnover has nearly doubled since 2018, when it was at US$ 53.6 billion. In July 2019, Pfizer had announced the plan to combine Upjohn with Mylan to form a new company — Viatris. With the separation of the Upjohn business and the formation of a consumer healthcare joint venture with GSK in 2019, Pfizer transformed into a more focused player in innovative medicines and vaccines. However, this restructuring measure also led to a drop in its turnover to US$ 51.8 billion in 2019 and to US$ 41.9 billion in 2020. From the number three slot in 2018 (behind J&J and Roche), Pfizer’s ranking fell to eight in 2020. However, Covid turned its fortunes yet again and its turnover increased to US$ 81.3 billion in 2021.

When we split Pfizer’s 2022 revenues of US$ 100.3 billion, we notice that its portfolio has 10 products with sales greater than US$ 1 billion. These include the Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty with US$ 37.8 billion in revenues, Paxlovid with US$ 18.9 billion, anticoagulant Eliquis with US$ 6.5 billion, and the Prevnar family of pneumococcal vaccines with US$ 6.3 billion in revenues. Pfizer's partner BMS recorded sales of US$ 11.8 billion for Eliquis in 2022.

With a drop in Covid cases, demand for Comirnaty and Paxlovid has decreased significantly. In 2023, Comirnaty’s revenue is likely to drop 64 percent to around US$ 13.5 billion, and Paxlovid’s revenue is likely to plummet by around 58 percent to around US$ 8 billion.

Pfizer expects its 2023 revenues to be between US$ 67 billion and US$ 71 billion, reflecting an operational decline of over 30 percent. However, when we exclude the revenues of Covid products, we are likely to see a growth in revenues of around 7 to 9 percent, coming primarily from new product launches, recently acquired products and Pfizer’s in-line portfolio.

“Pfizer expects 2024 sales of Covid products to stabilize, then starting in 2025 and continuing in 2026 and beyond, it expects to see an increase in Covid-19 vaccination rates, assuming the successful development and approval of a Covid-flu combination product,” said Bourla. Last December, Pfizer and BioNTech received fast track designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their mRNA-based combination vaccine candidate for influenza and Covid-19, which aims to help prevent two respiratory diseases with a single injection.

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Stars in Pfizer’s pipeline — RSV, pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines

In 2022, Pfizer spent US$ 11.4 billion in research and development, up 12 percent from its R&D spend in 2021. It has a power-packed pipeline with 110 programs, including 72 new molecular entities. Out of the 110 programs, 33 are in oncology, 23 in inflammation and immunology, 19 in vaccines, 15 in internal medicines, 12 in rare diseases and eight in anti-infectives.

However, the stars in Pfizer’s pipeline are its vaccine candidates. Pfizer’s RSV vaccine candidate RSVpreF is being developed for pregnant women (to help protect their babies from RSV after birth) and individuals 60 years of age or older for the prevention of lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV. The vaccine recently received support from the FDA's advisory committee, and a decision on its use for older adults is expected by May 2023.

The agency has also granted priority review to the maternal RSV vaccine, with an action date of August 2023. If approved, it would be the first vaccine for pregnant women to help protect against the complications of RSV disease in infants from birth through six months.

Recently, FDA also designated Prevnar 20 for priority review in children aged six weeks through 17 years. Six months ago, Merck’s Vaxneuvance had received pediatric approval. The Merck vaccine defends against 15 serotypes, as compared to 13 strains covered by Pfizer’s Prevnar. However, Merck’s edge could be short-lived as Prevnar’s next-generation vaccine protects against 20 serotypes.

The US regulatory agency has also accepted the BLA (biologics license application) review of Pfizer’s pentavalent meningococcal vaccine candidate — MenABCWY — in adolescents with the PDUFA date of October 2023. Moreover, the company has announced positive top-line results from a phase 3 study of its hemophilia B gene therapy candidate, fidanacogene elaparvovec.

Besides this vaccines and therapies, FDA is going to decide on several other Pfizer drugs in 2023, such as ritlecitinib for alopecia, elranatamab for multiple myeloma, etrasimod for ulcerative colitis, and Abrilada, a biosimilar of AbbVie’s blockbuster Humira (adalimumab).

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Our view

As of today, the sweet spot of US$ 100.3 billion in 2022 revenues posted by Pfizer surely looks like a one-off. Though the drug behemoth’s vaccine pipeline looks promising, its shopping list reflects a huge reliance on oncology for future growth.

While only time can tell which of those bets will work and which won’t, it looks like Pfizer has capitalized on the lead the pandemic granted it to race ahead of competition.

(All financial and drug pipeline-related information has been taken from the Pfizer website.)

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Image Credit : Covid meds fuel Pfizer past $100B in 2022 by PharmaCompass license under CC BY 2.0

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