Pfizer’s 4Q net plunges on charges
DRUGMAKER Pfizer yesterday said that fourth-quarter profit plunged 59 per cent because of discontinued operations, restructuring and other charges, and generic competition continuing to siphon off revenue from former blockbuster medicines.
Despite a 3 per cent revenue decline caused by those pressures and unfavourable currency exchange rates, Pfizer easily topped Wall Street’s modest expectations.
Pfizer’s stock rose 59 cents, or two per cent, to US$30.25 in premarket trading.
The world’s second-biggest drugmaker said net income was US$2.57 billion, or 39 cents per share, down from US$6.32 billion, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the maker of Viagra, arthritis drug Xeljanz and pneumonia vaccine Prevnar said net income would have been US$3.69 billion, or 56 cents per share. That topped analyst expectations of 52 cents per share.
Revenue totalled US$ 13.56 billion, down two per cent. Analysts expected US$13.36 billion.
Sales of primary care drugs fell 10 per cent to US$3.44 billion, mainly because of generic competition for Viagra in Europe and for the cholesterol fighter Lipitor.
Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug for nearly a decade until it got US generic competition two years ago, now faces cheaper copycats in Europe and Australia as well. Those smaller revenues have been shifted to the company’s established products unit, which saw sales edge up two per cent to US$2.42 billion.
Pfizer’s specialty care division posted a seven per cent drop in sales to US$3.4 billion, because of generic competition in foreign countries for schizophrenia treatment Geodon and blood pressure drug Revatio. Pfizer also received lower royalties from immune disorder drug Enbrel as a co-promotion deal for that winds down.
Consumer health care revenue edged up one per cent to US$943 million. The bright spot was Pfizer’s fledgling cancer drug business, which posted a 26 per cent jump to US$468 million.
The New York-based drugmaker forecast 2014 profit of US$1.57 to US$1.72 per share, or US$2.20 to US$2.30 excluding one-time items.
“We enter 2014 with confidence in the competitive positioning of our commercial businesses, the prospects for our recently launched products and the strength of our research pipeline,” CEO Ian Read said in a statement.
He noted Pfizer will be reporting on midstage research results this year for experimental drugs for advanced breast cancer, high cholesterol and, for Xeljanz, testing against another immune disorder, psoriasis.