Lorlatinib

Pfizer will reduce its costs by $2.5 billion in another round of cutbacks, which will kick in next year and run through 2029. The New York company unveiled the plan in its second-quarter earnings report (PDF). The savings effort comes amid a quarter in which Pfizer topped expectations with a 3% revenue increase to $15 billion. The company raised its 2026 sales guidance at the midpoint by $500 million to a range of $60.5 billion to $62.5 billion. The additional cutbacks bring Pfizer’s total cost-savings target (PDF) to $9.7 billion through 2029. Of the new $2.5 billion effort, $1.5 billion is earmarked for optimizing the company’s manufacturing operations, with the remaining $1 billion added to Pfizer’s “cost realignment program.” In total, the cost realignment plan is designed to save the company $6.7 billion through the end of 2029. Pfizer is churning $500 million of the cost savings into R&D investment this year, it added. The manufacturing optimization effort is “focused on network structure changes, product portfolio enhancements and additional operational efficiencies,” Pfizer said. Overall, the cost savings will support “margin expansion through productivity gains” and provide “future growth opportunities,” Pfizer added. To install and execute the new cost savings, Pfizer will incur a one-time expenditure of $6 billion, with much of the figure going to severance, implementation and exit costs, in addition to non-cash expenditures for accelerated depreciation and asset write-downs. The program is a continuation of Pfizer’s reorganization, which kicked off in 2023 following its $43 billion acquisition of antibody-drug conjugate specialist Seagen. The buyout expanded Pfizer’s headcount to 88,000 at the end of that year and has since been in decline, falling to 75,000 at the end of 2025. As for Pfizer’s quarterly revenue surprise, analysts had expected a year-over-year decline, given the company’s 10% sales boom in the second quarter of 2025, which was attributed to contractual arrangements for the COVID products Comirnaty and Paxlovid. While the COVID products saw major dropoffs, including Paxlovid sales plummeting from $427 million in the second quarter of last year to $21 million in the same period this year, Pfizer’s growth products thrived, including blood thinner Eliquis, which was up 21%, and migraine therapy Nurtec, which saw an 18% increase. Pfizer’s cancer medications that were up included Orgovyx (+51%), Lorbrena (+41%) and Padcev (+23%), helping the oncology portfolio to a 9% bump. Even in the face of new competition from Alnylam and BridgeBio in ATTR-CM, Pfizer’s Vyndaqel family of drugs realized a 9% gain. Another positive was the rebound of RSV shot Abrysvo, which was up 46%. Interim chief financial officer Cecile Guegan said that Pfizer’s upgraded revenue guidance “reflects strong non-COVID product performance.” The uptick includes a $1.5 billion increase in expected sales from non-COVID products, along with a $1 billion reduction in the company’s projection of its COVID product sales, from $5 billion to $4 billion. “The performance that we have to date reflects the low infection level, mostly impacting Paxlovid,” Guegan added on a conference call Tuesday. “But we remain with our revenues for Comirnaty in the later part of the year, consistent with the vaccination season.”

Pfizer is extending its cost-cutting drive again, this time with plans to unlock an additional $2.5 billion in savings between 2027 and 2029. That brings its total expected net savings from its various restructuring initiatives in recent years to $9.7 billion through 2029.The latest measures include $1 billion in further productivity savings from technology and simplification initiatives, as well as $1.5 billion from the next phase of its manufacturing optimisation programme, which will focus on network structure changes, enhancements to its product portfolio and more operational efficiencies."We have made meaningful progress on our productivity enhancement initiatives and remain on track to deliver most of the anticipated $7.2 billion in total net cost savings by the end of 2026," said Cecile Guegan, interim chief financial officer replacing Dave Denton, in prepared remarks during the company's second-quarter earnings call Tuesday.Eliquis, Padcev top estimatesThe announcement accompanied stronger-than-expected quarterly results. Overall revenues in the three months ended June were up 3% year-over-year to $15 billion, beating forecasts of $14.4 billion. Pfizer nevertheless reported a net loss of $248 million, versus net income of $2.9 billion in the corresponding year-ago quarter, due to $4.3 billion in non-cash asset impairments mostly tied to disappointing results from a Phase III lung cancer trial of sigvotatug vedotin.Regarding individual drug products, sales were led by the anticoagulant Eliquis, which climbed 21% to $2.4 billion, above analyst expectations of roughly $2 billion. Bladder cancer therapy Padcev, an antibody-drug conjugate Pfizer acquired through its $43-billion takeover of Seagen in 2023, also exceeded forecasts, with sales rising 23% to $667 million, topping consensus estimates of about $634 million.Other growth products included the Vyndaqel franchise (+9%, $1.8 billion), Nurtec ODT/Vydura (+18%, $421 million), Lorbrena (+41%, $354 million) and Abrysvo (+46%, $208 million).Lower COVID outlookHowever, COVID-19 products continued to weigh on results amid subdued demand. Sales of Pfizer's Comirnaty vaccine fell 32% to $261 million, while its Paxlovid treatment for COVID-19 infection plunged 95% to just $21 million. Pfizer lowered its full-year outlook for those products to a combined $4 billion, down from about $5 billion previously."Low COVID-19 incidence could continue to limit Paxlovid utilisation," Guegan said. "Our plan also assumes the majority of Comirnaty sales will occur toward year-end, consistent with the vaccination season."Despite the weaker COVID-19 product outlook, Pfizer did bump up the lower end of its 2026 revenue guidance to between $60.5 billion and $62.5 billion, from a previous range of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion; it reaffirmed its adjusted earnings guidance of $2.80 to $3.00 per share. Management attributed the improved revenue outlook to a better-than-expected increase from its non-COVID portfolio of $1.5 billion.Pipeline cutsMeanwhile, Pfizer cleared some programmes from its pipeline. On the chopping block are MET-224o (PF-08656796), an oral, fully biased, ultra-long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist in Phase I testing for chronic weight management. The company had acquired the compound through its hard-fought takeout of Metsera for $10 billion last year.It is also dropping development of another obesity candidate, PF-07976016, a GIP receptor antagonist that was in Phase II.Other discontinued programmes include PF-07985631, which was under development for nephropathy, and PF-07258669, an MC4R antagonist that Pfizer was working on to treat conditions like cachexia and anorexia-associated weight loss. Both of the programmes were in Phase I testing.