Pfizer Raises 2026 Outlook as Cancer and Heart Drugs Offset Covid Slide

Pfizer reported third-quarter earnings on Tuesday that beat Wall Street's expectations and raised its full-year financial targets, as rapid growth in newer cancer and cardiovascular drugs offset a continued slide in revenue from its Covid-19 vaccine and antiviral pill.

The results, detailed in a press release filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, showed total revenue of $16.58 billion for the quarter, essentially flat from $16.65 billion a year earlier but above analyst forecasts that had clustered closer to $16 billion. Adjusted earnings came to 87 cents a share, matching the year-earlier quarter and beating a consensus estimate near 73 cents. The company also disclosed the figures in an 8-K filing and in materials posted ahead of a quarterly investor webcast held Tuesday morning.

The Numbers

On a reported basis, which includes one-time charges, net income fell 8 percent to $3.24 billion and diluted earnings per share dropped 9 percent to 56 cents. The gap between reported and adjusted results reflects a $650 million charge tied to Pfizer's licensing agreement with the Chinese biotechnology firm Innovent Biologics, which management said reduced per-share earnings by roughly 10 cents. For the first nine months of the year, revenue rose 2 percent to $46.07 billion, while reported diluted earnings per share fell 40 percent to 99 cents, a decline driven largely by impairment charges taken earlier in the year.

Pfizer raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $62 billion to $64 billion, up from $60.5 billion to $62.5 billion, and lifted its adjusted earnings guidance to $2.95 to $3.05 a share, from $2.80 to $3.00. The company also nudged up its research-and-development spending forecast to $10.8 billion to $11.8 billion and said it still expects to absorb about $1.1 billion in lost sales this year from generic and biosimilar competition.

• Padcev, an antibody-drug conjugate for bladder cancer gained through the Seagen acquisition, grew 55 percent operationally to add $255 million in sales.
• Eliquis, the blood thinner Pfizer co-markets with Bristol Myers Squibb, grew 25 percent operationally, adding $513 million.
• Paxlovid revenue fell 63 percent, a loss of $771 million, as Covid-19 infections and government stockpiling both declined.
• Comirnaty, the Covid-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech, fell 29 percent, down $339 million, on narrower U.S. vaccination recommendations.

A Portfolio in Transition

The quarter illustrates the trade Pfizer has been managing since Covid-19 product sales peaked in 2022: newer medicines, many acquired through a string of multibillion-dollar deals, are increasingly carrying the company even as the pandemic-era windfall fades. Excluding Comirnaty and Paxlovid, revenue from the rest of the business grew 7 percent operationally, and the broader category of "launched and acquired" products — drugs introduced or picked up through acquisitions in roughly the last five years — grew 32 percent year over year. The Prevnar family of pneumococcal vaccines, by contrast, fell 10 percent on lower U.S. vaccination rates, and the Primary Care unit as a whole declined 9 percent.

The pattern follows a year in which Pfizer struck an agreement with the Trump administration, announced last fall, in which it agreed to extend most-favored-nation pricing to certain government drug programs in exchange for a multiyear exemption from pharmaceutical tariffs and a pledge to invest tens of billions of dollars in U.S. manufacturing and research, a deal covered at the time by outlets including Yahoo Finance. That arrangement continues to shape how Pfizer talks about its U.S. manufacturing footprint and pricing strategy, even as the more immediate pressure on its results comes from ordinary patent expirations and the natural decline of Covid-19 demand rather than from policy itself.

A Settled CFO and a Cautious Wall Street

The earnings also closed out a leadership transition that had been running in parallel all year. Cecile Guegan, a 20-year Pfizer veteran who had been serving as interim chief financial officer since mid-August following the departure of predecessor Dave Denton for a role outside the pharmaceutical industry, was named permanent chief financial officer and executive vice president effective November 1, according to the company's original transition announcement in June and Tuesday's results. In the earnings release, Guegan said she was "particularly pleased" with the 32 percent operational growth in launched and acquired products, calling it evidence that Pfizer's post-pandemic acquisitions were paying off.

Pfizer "had another strong quarter with commercial momentum and disciplined execution," Chairman and Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in the earnings release.

Investors' initial response was muted. Shares moved only modestly in premarket trading Tuesday, according to a summary from TipRanks, which also noted that Wall Street's rating on the stock remains a tepid "Moderate Buy," based on eight buy ratings, 14 holds and one sell over the past three months. That split underscores a broader ambivalence toward Pfizer: a company that keeps beating lowered expectations on COVID-adjusted metrics while still working to convince investors that its next wave of growth, led by oncology and an emerging obesity-drug program, can replace the revenue it is losing from vaccines and antivirals. Pfizer paid $7.3 billion in dividends over the first nine months of the year and has not repurchased any shares in 2026, leaving $3.3 billion in buyback authorization untouched, a sign management is still prioritizing debt reduction and deal-related obligations over returning cash to shareholders.

The results matter beyond Pfizer's own shareholders. The company remains one of the largest employers in the pharmaceutical industry and a bellwether for how drugmakers that built pandemic-era windfalls are navigating the post-Covid stretch; its results are often read alongside those of rivals such as Moderna and BioNTech, which face a steeper version of the same revenue cliff without as large a base of other products to offset it. Hospital systems, pharmacy benefit managers and patients on drugs like Eliquis and Padcev are also directly affected by the volume and pricing trends Pfizer disclosed.

What Comes Next

Pfizer's updated guidance assumes no further share buybacks this year and already bakes in the Innovent charge, meaning the raised forecast reflects underlying operating strength rather than one-time items. Management pointed to a "catalyst-rich" stretch ahead, including trial data expected for the experimental cancer drug mevrometostat and continued development of obesity treatments inherited through this year's acquisition of Metsera, whose lead injectable candidate showed double-digit weight loss in an early trial but is not expected to reach the market before 2028. Pfizer has said that year, when patents on several top sellers expire, will mark the point at which it expects to return to more consistent growth. Until then, quarters like this one — a modest headline beat, a raised but still cautious outlook, and a stock price that barely moved — are likely to remain the pattern as the company works through the long tail of its pandemic windfall.