Pandemic hurts sales, profit for Pfizer amid restructuring
FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. (AP) — Pfizer Inc. reported a 32% plunge in second-quarter profit, mainly due to the global coronavirus pandemic limiting marketing of and new prescriptions for its medicines, even as the drugmaker races to develop a vaccine.
Still, the biggest U.S. drugmaker by revenue posted a solid profit, nudged up parts of its 2020 financial forecast and reaffirmed the rest. Wall Street responded by driving Pfizer shares up 4%.
“Our continued strong performance speaks to the resilience of our business even during the most challenging of times,” CEO Albert Bourla told analysts on a conference call Tuesday. “We continue to believe that the second quarter, and particularly April, will be the worst” for us.
The maker of the world’s top-selling vaccine, Prevnar 13 for preventing pneumonia and related bacterial diseases, noted that as it had predicted, the pandemic restricted doctor visits by patients and company sales representatives, reducing prescriptions for new medicines and vaccination rates for many of its shots. However, sales rose for its medicines used to treat patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Pfizer is among the drugmakers leading the race to develop a safe, effective vaccine against the coronavirus. It’s one of several drugmakers included in Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government’s effort to accelerate development of multiple vaccines.
The world’s biggest maker of injectible sterile medicines on Monday began the crucial patient study of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine that it’s developing with German partner BioNTech.
The first participants, in the U.S., received either dummy shots or the first of two planned doses of the experimental vaccine chosen as the best candidate based on the partners' small early tests in people and...
