A Record-Breaking Year and Strong Fourth Quarter for Pfizer

Pfizer reported record-breaking financial results for full year 2022 as operational growth drove all-time-high revenues and earnings per share for the company. Fourth-quarter results reflected strong performance across several key medicines and vaccines, as the company continued to advance its research and development (R&D) pipeline and received regulatory filing acceptances for a number of potential new product launches and indications. The company also provided full-year 2023 revenue guidance of $67.0 to $71.0 billion. Please reference Pfizer’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings release for additional information regarding our financial guidance details and assumptions. See here.

Pfizer reported revenues of $100.3 billion for full year 2022 for the first time in the company’s 174-year history, reflecting 30 percent operational growth, while fourth quarter revenues were $24.3 billion, reflecting 13 percent operational growth. Fourth-quarter operational growth was primarily driven by key primary care and specialty care brands, partially offset primarily by lower revenues for certain other products. Quarterly reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $0.87, up 48 percent year-over-year. Quarterly adjusted diluted EPS[1] was $1.14, up 45 percent year-over year.

Full-year revenues increased 23 percent year-over-year and Pfizer reported full-year diluted EPS of $5.47, up 42 percent year-over-year, and adjusted diluted EPS1 of $6.58, up 62 percent year over year. Both EPS figures represent all-time highs for the company.

Pfizer’s 2022 performance is a testament to the company’s commitment to fulfilling its purpose of delivering breakthroughs that change patients’ lives and creating value for Pfizer shareholders.

The company continues to take significant strides in strengthening its R&D pipeline and deploying capital into growth-focused business development to access external science. With an exciting wave of potential breakthroughs expected to emerge from its pipeline in the near term, the company has set a strong foundation to build on the success of 2022 and help drive growth through 2023 and beyond.

“2022 was a record-breaking year for Pfizer, not only in terms of revenue and earnings per share, which were the highest in our long history, but more importantly, in terms of the percentage of patients who have a positive perception of Pfizer and the work we do,” said Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “As proud as we are about what we have accomplished, our focus is always on what is next.”

For more details, read Pfizer’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings release.

Delivering Scientific Breakthroughs

This is an exciting time in Pfizer’s history, as the company continues to discover novel solutions to help address diseases by developing new transformative medicines and vaccines. The quarter marked notable milestones and regulatory developments in Pfizer’s pipeline for several exciting pipeline programs, many of which have blockbuster potential:

  • Positive top-line data from the Phase 3 BENEGENE-2 study, evaluating Pfizer’s gene therapy candidate fidanacogene elaparvovec, for the treatment of adult males with moderately severe to severe hemophilia B;
  • Fast track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an mRNA-based combination vaccine candidate for protection against influenza and COVID-19;
  • U.S. and European filing acceptances for Pfizer’s therapy candidate etrasimod, an S1P receptor modulator in development for individuals living with moderately-to-severely active ulcerative colitis;
  • U.S. filing acceptance for Pfizer’s 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidate for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease in infants, its investigational pentavalent meningococcal vaccine candidate for protection against meningococcal disease in adolescents and young adults and its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine candidate for the prevention of RSV in adults 60 years and older; and
  • A breakthrough therapy designation from the FDA for elranatamab, Pfizer’s investigational cancer immunotherapy, for the treatment of people with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

“As we turn to 2023, we expect to once again set records, with potentially the largest number of new product and indication launches that we’ve ever had in such a short period of time. We believe that the combination of these expected near-term launches, additional pipeline products that could potentially come to market in the medium-term, and anticipated contributions from business development, has the potential to set the company up for continued robust growth through the rest of this decade and beyond,” said Dr. Bourla.

Returning Value to Shareholders

Pfizer continued its plans to deploy capital to enhance future growth prospects and return capital directly to shareholders.

During 2022, Pfizer invested $11.4 billion in internal R&D projects and approximately $26 billion in completed business development transactions. The company’s largest transactions of 2022 included acquiring three highly innovative companies: Biohaven Pharmaceuticals Holding Company Ltd., Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc.

In 2022, Pfizer also returned capital directly to shareholders through a combination of cash dividends, the value of which totaled $9.0 billion, and the repurchase of $2 billion of shares in March 2022.

“For the full year, we achieved revenues of over $100 billion, including 10 medicines or vaccines that generated revenues of more than $1 billion each,” said David Denton, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. “Looking forward to 2023, we expect strong topline growth of 7% to 9% excluding our COVID-19 products and anticipated foreign exchange impacts. We are also increasing our investments behind our launch products and pipeline in order to help realize our growth goals for 2023 and beyond.”

Please see below for earnings highlights and visit Pfizer’s Investor Relations site for more information.

[1] Adjusted income and Adjusted diluted EPS are defined as U.S. GAAP net income attributable to Pfizer Inc. common shareholders and Reported diluted EPS attributable to Pfizer Inc. common shareholders before the impact of amortization of intangible assets, certain acquisition-related items, discontinued operations and certain significant items. See the accompanying reconciliations of certain GAAP Reported to Non-GAAP Adjusted information for fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 and 2021. See here. Adjusted income and its components and Adjusted diluted EPS measures are not, and should not be viewed as, substitutes for U.S. GAAP net income and its components and diluted EPS. See the Non-GAAP Financial Measure: Adjusted Income sections of Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Pfizer’s 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended October 2, 2022 and the accompanying Non-GAAP Financial Measure: Adjusted Income section of this press release for a definition of each component of Adjusted income as well as other relevant information. See here.

Forward-looking statements included herein, including those related to our anticipated operating and financial performance, are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. We encourage you to read our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the sections captioned “Risk Factors” and “Forward Looking Information and Factors that May Affect Future Results,” for a description of such substantial risks and uncertainties. These reports are available at www.pfizer.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Also reference Pfizer’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings release for additional information regarding our financial guidance details and assumptions. See here.

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