Pfizer shares tumble on weak forecast for 2024 revenues

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Pfizer shares tumbled more than 7 per cent after the US drugmaker forecast 2024 revenues that were below consensus estimates, as the company attempts to chart a future for growth without blockbuster Covid-19 products.

The company said on Wednesday it expected 2024 revenues to fall to between $58.5bn and $61.5bn. An average of analyst estimates compiled by Reuters had seen revenues of $63.17bn for the same period.

When it released third-quarter earnings in October, Pfizer said it expected 2023 revenues to fall to between $58bn and $61bn, down from a previously issued guidance, in May this year, of $67bn to $71bn.

The drugmaker on Wednesday said it also expected adjusted earnings per share to come in at between $2.05 and $2.25, below Reuters estimates of $3.16 per share.

After raking in billions of dollars through sales of the Covid vaccine it co-developed with Germany’s BioNTech during the pandemic and seeing share prices surge, Pfizer has struggled to reorientate its pipeline and to reassure investors about its growth potential.

“We are acutely aware that all these uncertainties are making it difficult to project the future revenues of Pfizer — and are also affecting our stock price,” Albert Bourla, the company’s chief executive, said on a recent earnings call.

The same concerns have plagued other drugmakers whose sales surged during the pandemic, such as Moderna and Pfizer’s partner BioNTech.

In response to these concerns, Pfizer initiated a significant cost-cutting programme, worth at least $4bn.

But an increase of $500mn in cost cutting announced on Wednesday was still not enough to please investors. New York-listed shares lost 7.3 per cent before the open, after losing more than 44 per cent this year.

To make up for the shortfall in its pipeline, the US drugmaker earlier this year announced plans to buy Seagen, an oncology drugmaker, for $43bn; a deal Pfizer said it expected to close on Thursday.