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Pfizer Loses $12.93 Billion as COVID Vaccines Stall
Waning concern about COVID-19 among Americans is helping to erode billions in market value from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., a recent survey shows.
Pfizer investors triggered a stock sell-off Wednesday, pushing shares down 7.98% and wiping away roughly $12.93 billion in value after the company warned it may make less money next year because of static vaccination rates and a continued slowdown in demand for its COVID-19 vaccine and related products.
The drugmaker revised its 2024 revenue forecast to range between $58.5 billion and $61.5 billion, trailing the $62.66 billion analysts projected.
That reduction in revenue forecast is backed by a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey in November that found public interest in COVID-19 vaccinations is diminishing. Roughly half of U.S. adults indicated they do not plan to receive the latest vaccine (produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), which was made available in September. That hesitancy extends to previously vaccinated individuals, with about 17.2% (44 million) of Americans age 18 and over having received the updated vaccine.
Eli Lilly Will Be the First Trillion-Dollar Drug Company in History, Billionaire Investor Ken Langone Says
Ken Langone sees the stars aligning for Eli Lilly stock. “I think Lilly will be the first trillion-dollar drug company in history,” the billionaire investor said in a CNBC interview on Wednesday.
“Why? Their pipeline. And god bless [former CEO] John Lechleiter. In the dark years when everything was falling off the cliff, he was firm in his commitment to spending the money on R&D and protecting the dividend.”
This year, Eli Lilly rode the GLP-1 drug train with Mounjaro and Zepbound, with shares soaring 62% since January. In May, it surpassed Johnson & Johnson to become the biggest pharmaceutical company by market cap. Lilly is now worth about $568 billion.
But while Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which has also soared on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, have had banner years, other drug stocks have largely struggled.
Take Pfizer, which has seen its stock sink nearly 50% year to date. Shares fell Wednesday after it forecast sales that could be up to $5 billion below Wall Street’s 2024 views as revenue from COVID-19 vaccine and treatments continues to slow.
Tylenol Autism Settlement Conference Scheduled to Discuss Resolution for Claims Brought by Families Nationwide
Parties involved in the federal Tylenol autism lawsuits will begin meeting early next month with a U.S. Magistrate Judge, to discuss potential settlements for claims brought over by the drug makers’ failure to warn that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen may cause autism, attention hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other developmental delays among children.
Tylenol (acetaminophen) has been widely used by pregnant women for decades, largely due to the belief that it is safe for unborn children. However, a growing number of lawsuits are now being pursued by families nationwide, each raising similar allegations that children were left with life-long disabilities after exposure to the active ingredient in the pain medication before birth.
There are currently about 500 product liability claims pending before Judge Cote, with thousands of additional claims under active investigation by Tylenol autism lawyers, and it is widely expected that the size and scope of the litigation will increase dramatically in the coming months and years.
U.S. Employers Hire Virtual Providers as Weight-Loss Drug Gatekeepers
U.S. employers facing surging costs from paying for Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO)Wegovy and similar obesity drugs are hiring virtual healthcare providers like Teladoc (TDOC.N) to implement weight-loss management programs, a dozen consultants, pharmacy benefit managers, analysts, and providers told Reuters.
These programs may require diet and exercise before granting access to the medicines, and in some cases will become employees’ sole covered option for medications like Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N) rival therapy Zepbound, which have list prices of more than $1,000 a month.
Truist analyst Jailendra Singh forecasts the market for virtual obesity drug management could reach $700 million in 2024 and grow to as much as $9 billion longer term, assuming providers charge around $30 per member, per month, and $50 for physician appointments.
Sanofi Scraps $750 Million Drug Deal, After FTC Sues on Antitrust Grounds
French pharma company Sanofi scrapped a $750 million drug licensing deal with California-based Maze Therapeutics, just hours after the FTC sued to block the arrangement.
Why it matters: This is a significant, and de facto successful, expansion of the Biden administration’s “killer acquisition” theory, to a drug that’s still in the early stages of development.
Details: The global licensing deal was for a Phase 1 drug candidate focused on a rare genetic condition called Pompe disease, and included $150 million in upfront cash and another $600 million in earnouts.
Companies Market Stem Cell Treatments to Long COVID Patients — Prices Are High but Evidence Is Scant That Therapies Work, Researchers Say
Clinics that sell stem cell and exosome treatments have turned their attention to long COVID patients, researchers found.
Among 38 businesses selling such treatments for COVID-19, the majority (36) marketed those therapies for long COVID, stated Leigh Turner, Ph.D., of the University of California Irvine, and colleagues in Stem Cell Reports.
“We didn’t think the pattern was going to emerge as strongly as it did,” Turner told MedPage Today. Turner and colleagues found that these products weren’t cheap. Among the nine businesses that provided information on how much they charged, the least expensive product was $2,950, while the most expensive product cost $25,000. The average listed cost was $11,322, they found.
“It is understandable that individuals seeking relief from shortness of breath, fatigue, ‘brain fog,’ heart palpitations, loss of smell, and other symptoms search for interventions that might help them,” Turner and colleagues wrote. “Acknowledging the suffering and agency of such persons, members of this patient population are vulnerable to having their suffering, desperation, and hope exploited by entities making appealing therapeutic claims without having the scientific evidence needed to make such representations.”
French Drugmaker Receives Funding for Combination Antibiotic
French biopharmaceutical company Antabio announced today that it has raised $25 million in financing to continue the development of a next-generation antibacterial combination for severe drug-resistant infections.
The funding, which includes investments from the AMR Action Fund and the EIC Fund, will enable Antabio to complete phase 2 clinical studies of MEM-ANT3310, an investigational drug that combines the carbapenem antibiotic meropenem with Antabio’s serine beta-lactamase inhibitor ANT3310. The combination is designed to target beta-lactamase–producing, gram-negative pathogens such as carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Antabio says MEM-ANT3310 presents a “truly differentiated alternative” to life-threatening infections caused by these pathogens, including hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia.
