Pfizer has narrowed its focus and revealed that its profit nearly doubled in the third quarter.
The pharma giant shared that it gained more than $8 billion by creating a consumer health products venture with GlaxoSmithKline, which is one of the key parts of its plan to focus on innovative medicines.
The medications include blockbuster drugs such as Eliquis (blood thinner), Ibrance (breast cancer drug), and Xeljanz (rheumatoid arthritis drug). These drugs saw a sale jump by more than 18 percent in the latest quarter.
The company has retained a pipeline of a few experimental drugs and is expected to get 30 new drug approvals by 2022. Pfizer is in late clinical trials of a drug that can treat hemophilia A and will be launching its three biosimilars from December through February.
The New York-based company’s third-quarter profit handily beat Wall Street forecasts, and it raised its financial outlook for the year.
Edward Jones strategist and analyst Linda Bannister said, “Pfizer’s strong pipeline of new drugs should accelerate growth for the company beginning in 2020.”
Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said, “Pfizer wants to work with policymakers on common-sense solutions to high drug prices that would reduce patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
Bourla explained that he cannot “imagine Congress would stand in the way of innovation, a reference to proposed bills that would reduce drugmakers’ revenue.”
On August 1, Pfizer created its consumer health joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline, which resulted in a much bigger company with more scale.
Pfizer has also been creating a huge company by joining its off-patent branded drug unit, Upjohn, with a generic pharmaceutical company, Mylan, a joint venture that is expected to close in mid-2020. Referring to this deal, Bourla said, “We’ll be the largest off-patent drug company in the world.” The pharma giant will own 57 percent of that company, which will market blockbuster drugs such as Viagra (Erectile Dysfunction drug) and Lyrica (painkiller).
