Corona blow to Pfizer – E24

The pharmaceutical giant warns of writing off assets amounting to billions and failure in expected revenues.

Pfizer is warning the market of an earnings miss on Friday, sending the stock lower in after-hours trading in the US.

• The pharmaceutical giant now expects its sales to be between $58 billion and $61 billion in 2023, a significant decline from the previous forecast of $67 billion to $70 billion.
• This may also have consequences further down the accounts. Earnings per share are now expected to be $1.45 to $1.65, nearly half from the previous forecast of $3.25 to $3.45 per share.
• In addition, the company wrote down the value of its inventory of various Covid medications by $5.5 billion as a result of lower than expected demand.

Lose income

Pfizer announces a revised supply agreement with US authorities. This requires, among other things, that the authorities deliver 7.9 million doses of the Corona drug Baxlovid by the end of 2023.

This means a reversal of expected revenues of about $4.2 billion.

Pfizer will now sell the drug on the commercial market, but reports indicate that this will be postponed until after the new year.

This postponement, coupled with lower use of the Corona Comernati vaccine, will further reduce expected income. This reduction, partially offset by $1 billion in cost reductions, amounts to $4.8 billion.

Low drug stocks

Pfizer’s surprise earnings announcement Friday evening caused ripples in after-market trading on Wall Street.

At 11 p.m., the stock was down 4.14 percent in after-market trading.

Biontech, Pfizer’s vaccine partner, also fell nearly three percent. Meanwhile, shares of rival Moderna fell more than four percent.