Pfizer pouring COVID profits into cancer battle, CEO Bourla says
11/05/2023 17:59
By Michael Erman
May 11 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc PFE.N is pouring the
windfall profits from its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment into
developing products to battle cancer, most notably in its $43
billion purchase of Seagen Inc SGEN.O , Chief Executive Albert
Bourla said at a Reuters newsmaker event on Thursday.
"Pfizer is giving all the profits that we made from COVID in
'21 and '22 and what we will make in '23 to acquire technology
and products that we believe will allow us to battle cancer," he
said, calling the effort the drugmaker's "next moonshot."
The COVID products drove Pfizer's revenue to record levels,
topping $100 billion in 2022 and $80 billion in 2021.
Bourla is looking to shift the drugmaker's focus from the
COVID-19 vaccines and treatment that put the company at the
forefront of the pandemic response and led to a
once-in-a-lifetime surge in revenue.
The company is in the midst of a steep but expected fall in
COVID product sales and is also preparing for declining revenue
in coming years for some of its top-selling drugs as they begin
to face competition from cheap generics.
As a result, investors are looking for Pfizer to produce new
blockbuster drugs that can pull in billions every year, either
from the company's own pipeline of medicines in development or
through deals.
Bourla has already overseen a string of acquisitions to
bolster Pfizer's drug pipeline, headlined by the $43 billion
deal for Seagen, which makes complex targeted cancer therapies.
Pfizer's other recent deals include its purchase of Biohaven
Pharmaceutical Holding, maker of a migraine prevention
treatment, for $11.6 billion, a $6.7 billion buyout of
ulcerative colitis drug developer Arena Pharmaceuticals, and a
$5.4 billion deal for Global Blood Therapeutics with its focus
on treating sickle cell disease.
Bourla led Pfizer as the New York-based drugmaker raced
alongside German partner BioNTech 22UAy.DE to develop a
vaccine for COVID as much of the world locked down in 2020. The
company also developed Paxlovid, a life-saving antiviral
treatment for the disease.
The U.S. government will end the COVID Public Health
Emergency on Thursday that allowed millions of Americans to
receive vaccines, tests and treatments at no cost.
Pfizer and other COVID vaccine makers expect to sell the
next round of booster shots on the commercial market rather than
directly to the federal government as they had previously.
Pfizer has said it expects to roughly quadruple the price of
its COVID shot to about $110 to $130 per dose this year.
(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Bill
Berkrot)
((michael.erman@thomsonreuters.com;))