(Reuters) -Drugmaker Pfizer beat Wall Avenue estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, boosted by cost-cutting, a smaller-than-feared drop in gross sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and powerful demand for its coronary heart drug Vyndaqel.
After the immense success of its COVID-19 merchandise throughout the pandemic, Pfizer has struggled to persuade shareholders that it could make up for the potential income loss from some top-selling remedies which might be anticipated to go off patent quickly.
The corporate can be below strain from traders over its current acquisitions, which embrace the $43 billion buy of most cancers drugmaker Seagen. The corporate has turned to cost-cutting measures as properly which might be anticipated to assist it save greater than $5 billion by 2027.
Pfizer’s shares rose 2% in premarket hours. The inventory fell practically 8% final 12 months, and trades at lower than half its worth on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quarterly gross sales of most cancers remedy Padcev, acquired with Seagen, got here in at $444 million, in contrast with estimates of $440 million, in keeping with knowledge compiled by LSEG.
COVID merchandise are nonetheless a revenue driver for Pfizer.
Income from antiviral remedy Paxlovid was $727 million for the quarter, whereas COVID vaccine Comirnaty introduced in gross sales of $3.38 billion. Pfizer makes the Comirnaty vaccine with German companion BioNTech.
Analysts had been anticipating quarterly gross sales of $794.33 million for Paxlovid and $3.10 billion for Comirnaty.
Gross sales of its coronary heart illness drug, offered as Vyndaqel and Vyndamax, got here in at $1.55 billion, above estimates of $1.48 billion.
On an adjusted foundation, Pfizer earned 63 cents per share for the fourth quarter, in contrast with analysts’ estimates of 47 cents per share.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Enhancing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
