Pfizer’s revenues  of the first quarter have been below analyst expectations.
Revenues were down 1 per cent compared to same period in 2016, Pfizer said,  due to a shorter quarter that had resulted in one fewer “selling days” in the US and two fewer internationally.

Several of Pfizer’s blockbuster medicines in the first quarter fell short, including US sales of Viagra and Prevnar, the pneumococcal vaccine, while Ibrance, the breast cancer treatment,  was just in line with estimates.

However, first-quarter adjusted earnings  were 69 cents, two cents higher than analysts’ estimates (67-cent average), declared the US-based company.

Pfizer, since early 2016 when has  abandoned the mergerer with Allergan Plc, has made some deals suc as  the $14 billion purchase of cancer drug maker Medivation, with the aim to reverse the slowdown in older drugs.

Pfizer according to Bloomberg could now target Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., whose shares have fallen aftet it failed a pivotal cancer study last year, would bring Pfizer a drug to treat lung cancer with immunotherapy, one of the hottest areas in the field, analysts have said.

On the other side Ibrance drug is doing well and is expected to reach $5.3 billion in sales by 2020.

However, competition is on the horizon:  Novartis received regulatory approval in March for a similar drug, while a potential competitor from Eli Lilly & Co. gave promising results.

Also Inflectra, a Pfizer’s biosimilar competitor of Remicade Johnson & Johnson’s rheumatoid arthritis treatment, results suggest the treatment has yet to make a significant impact on its competitor. An explenation can be that in the U.S. biosimilars are still quite new and doctors  have been slower to prescribe them.

Source: Bloomberg