PFE New & Acquired Drugs Back 1H Top-Line Growth: Will the Trend Last?

With the end of the pandemic, sales of Pfizer’s PFE COVID products, Comirnaty and Paxlovid, have declined from their peak. However, Pfizer’s non-COVID operational revenues are improving, driven by its key in-line products like Vyndaqel, Padcev and Eliquis, new launches and newly acquired products like Nurtec and those from Seagen (December 2023).

Year 2023 was a record year for Pfizer in terms of new drug approvals. It received nine new medicine/vaccine approvals in 2023 that have begun to contribute to top-line growth. In 2024, it gained approval for a gene therapy for hemophilia, Hympavzi (marstacimab). In December 2023, Pfizer acquired Seagen, which strengthened its position in oncology by adding four antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs — Adcetris, Padcev, Tukysa and Tivdak. The acquired Seagen products contributed meaningfully to Pfizer’s revenues in 2024 and the first half of 2025. Seagen also has some next-generation ADC candidates in its pipeline.

Pfizer's recently launched and acquired products delivered $4.7 billion in revenues in the first half of 2025. Revenues from these products rose approximately 15% operationally versus last year. Pfizer expects the positive momentum to continue in the second half.

Pfizer faces its share of challenges, including COVID-19 product-related uncertainty, U.S. Medicare Part D headwinds, the upcoming loss of exclusivity (LOE) cliff in the 2026-2030 period, uncertainties around tariffs and a volatile macro environment. However, with COVID-related uncertainties diminishing, its revenue volatility is declining. Pfizer’s key drugs like Vyndaqel, Padcev and its recently launched and acquired products should help the company largely offset its LOEs over the next several years. Pfizer expects the 2025 to 2030 revenue CAGR to be approximately 6% despite the LOE cliff.

Pfizer expects the acquisition of Seagen to contribute more than $10 billion in 2030 risk-adjusted revenues with potential significant growth beyond 2030.

Competition in the Oncology Space

Pfizer is one of the largest drugmakers of cancer medicines. Other large players in the oncology space are AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK and Bristol-Myers BMY.

For AstraZeneca, oncology sales now comprise around 43% of total revenues. Sales in its oncology segment rose 16% in the first half of 2025. AstraZeneca’s strong oncology performance was driven by medicines such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo).

Merck’s key oncology medicines are PD-LI inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounts for around 50% of Merck’s pharmaceutical sales. Keytruda’s sales rose 6.6% to $15.1 billion in the first half of 2025.

Bristol-Myers’ key cancer drug is PD-LI inhibitor, Opdivo, which accounts for around 20% of its total revenues. Opdivo’s sales rose 9% to $4.82 billion in the first half of 2025.

PFE’s Stock Price, Estimates & Valuation

Pfizer’s stock has declined 2.1% so far this year compared with a decrease of 6.4% for the industry.

From a valuation standpoint, Pfizer appears attractive relative to the industry and is trading below its 5-year mean. Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 7.95 forward earnings, lower than 13.73 for the industry and the stock’s 5-year mean of 10.79. The stock is also much cheaper than other large drugmakers like AbbVie, Novo Nordisk, Lilly, AstraZeneca and J&J.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has risen from $3.07 per share to $3.11 per share for 2025, while that for 2026 has increased from $3.06 per share to $3.09 per share over the past seven days.

Pfizer has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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