© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Pfizer logo is seen in this illustration taken, May 1, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) -Pfizer on Wednesday forecast 2024 revenue and profit below Wall Street expectations, sending its shares down 7% in premarket trading even as it raised cost-cut target by $500 million.
A drop in annual COVID vaccination rates and demand for the treatments in 2023 have dragged sales of Pfizer (NYSE:)’s COVID products, Paxlovid and the vaccine it makes with German partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:).
The products, which had boosted its revenue over the last two years, are now expected to generate $8 billion in total sales in 2024.
Analysts were expecting sals of Comirnaty alone to be more than $8 billion besides more than $5 billion from Paxlovid.
The drop in COVID product sales had also forced Pfizer to launch a program to cut jobs and expenses, which is now expected to save least $4 billion a year.
The company, which employs nearly 83,000 employees globally, in November cut 500 jobs at its Sandwich, Kent site in the UK.
Pfizer’s $43 billion deal for cancer drugmaker Seagen, which is expected to close on Thursday, is expected to add $3.1 billion to revenue next year.
The drugmaker said on Tuesday it plans to create an oncology division early next year that would include the acquisition. The new division will be led by Chris Boshoff, who now runs cancer research and development for Pfizer.
The U.S. drugmaker expects its annual revenue to be in the range of $58.5 billion to $61.5 billion compared with analysts’ average estimate of $63.17 billion, according to LSEG data.
The company also forecast adjusted profit in the range of $2.05 to $2.25 per share, lower than analysts’ expectation of $3.16.