PFE: A Most Interesting Story -- December 21, 2022

Updates

January 6, 2023: China and Pfizer in talks.

Later, 7:44 a.m. CT: link here to the Taiwan story. 

Later, 7:37 a.m. CT: link here. 

The numbers seem to be very unimpressive:

The study found that protection against infection was just 3 percent for the fourth Pfizer shot, compared to someone who has received three doses, and 25% for the fourth dose of the Moderna vaccine compared to three. 

But this is what caught my attention as an investor.

• Pfizer is the main vaccine supplier in Israel.

The elephant in the room: all the lawsuits with regard to "vaccine injuries."

Original Post 

Before we get started, how are our intelligence agencies tracking the number of Covid-19-related deaths in China? Many, many, many different ways. But most fascinating: satellite images of hearses queuing up at Beijing's crematoriums. 

Now, back to Pfizer:

I've been following Pfizer for the past two years from an investor's point of view. Once I started, I kept spotting Pfizer in many articles, many lists. But yesterday I spotted Pfizer in an article I least expected, in an essay in the current issue of The New Yorker. I will come back too that story later today.

I'm not convinced Pfizer is going to do much for investors over the next year or so, or maybe even the next five years, or maybe ever. But I am finding it to be a very, very fascinating company right now. 

Some analysts think PFE's P/E is low for a reason and are cautioning investors to stay away from PFE. [I guess those analysts prefer companies with high P/Es.]

I track Pfizer here.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.     

I had forgotten. I guess I'm tracking PFE here.  

This may have been the story that got me interested, but I forget. Regardless, it got my attention. This is from December 6, 2022.

To get an idea how big this "industry" is, take a look at the FiercePharma article from November 23, 2021, link here. This is the story of the Covid-19 vaccine and treatment for the disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a $100 billion pharma goliath.

Pfizer’s revenue could reach $101.3 billion in 2022, with major contributions coming from the company’s BioNTech-partnered COVID vaccine and an antiviral therapeutic that has shown stellar clinical data, SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges projected in a Monday note to clients.

That level of revenue would be unheard of in the pharma industry. Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest biopharma company by revenue for years, recorded $82.6 billion revenue in 2020. Pfizer’s own revenue in 2018 clocked in at $53.7 billion before the separation of its consumer health franchise into a joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline in 2019.

Today:

Three "words" in the same sentence preceding "opts in"  that should excite those investing in PFE: 

• China RSV vaccine. Link here.

Paxlovid: without comment -- 

Dec 20 (Reuters) - An influential drug pricing research group has cut its suggested price range for Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N) COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid by more than 80%, partly to reflect the decreased disease burden as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus tends to cause less severe illness. 

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said on Tuesday that its new suggested U.S. price based on the benefits and value to patients was in the range of $563 to $906 per treatment course. 

That compares with its previous assessment of $3,600 to $5,800 per course.Pfizer will need to negotiate prices with private payers like insurers for the two-drug oral treatment when inventory built up by the U.S. government runs out and many COVID care costs revert to the private insurance market.

Ulcerative colitis:

Pfizer has a drug in the pipeline. Keeps meeting milestones. Etrasimod. Sphingosine-1phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator, but it is also being investigated for a range of other immuno-inflammatory diseases.