Can this covid-times saviour navigate the self-inflicted deep slump?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For Pfizer Inc., the strategy has been “go big, or go home". When the covid-19 pandemic first hit, Pfizer’s big bet on its partnership with BioNTech SE hit a home run.
In 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership swooped in as a saviour with their covid-19 mRNA vaccine, Comirnaty. It was one of the first vaccines to receive emergency approval during the pandemic, and Pfizer quickly followed it up with its antiviral drug Paxlovid. This Covid portfolio was supposed to take the company to new heights.
However, the all-or-nothing strategy has taken Pfizer downhill in recent years. To quote its chief executive, the “pride of the pharmaceutical industry" has “ended up in a situation that very rapidly deteriorated". The covid boom flushed the company with cash, which the Seattle-headquartered global biotechnology company deployed towards a string of new deals.
In fact, against a combined covid portfolio sales of $56 billion in 2022, Pfizer signed deals worth a whopping $70 billion. Apart from the mega $43 billion deal for oncology pioneer Seagan in 2023, the deals included the $11.6 billion acquisition of migraine drug maker Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd and the $5.4 billion acquisition of Global Blood Therapeutics Inc., which manufactures drugs for sickle cell anemia.
But as the pandemic ebbed, Pfizer’s covid portfolio sales dwindled from a peak of $56 billion in 2022 to $9 billion in 2024. Also, its new deals were not exactly playing out as expected. The sickle cell anemia drug had to be recalled after clinical trials uncovered higher mortality rates, the efficacy of the migraine drugs was nothing to write home about, and Pfizer’s dreams with obesity drugs got sidetracked after
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