Pfizer CEO signals hiatus on mega deals following M&A spree

2024-06-11

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Pfizer has been busy pursuing acquisitions over the past 24 months, pouring over $70 billion to bolster its pipeline with blockbuster takeouts of Seagen, Arena, Biohaven, Global Blood Therapeutics and others. However, CEO Albert Bourla now indicates the pharma needs to take a break after that spending spree.

The company has been doing some belt-tightening lately. Last month, it embarked on a new round of cost-cutting intended to reduce expenses by $1.5 billion by the end of 2027. That's on top of a $4-billion cost savings plan announced at the end of last year amid declining demand for its COVID-19 products.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference in Miami, Bourla stated that while Pfizer's business development appetite remains strong, the company won't be inking any major acquisitions in the near-term as it focuses on integrating its recent purchases.

"We need to catch our breath and make sure we execute well on [what] we have right now," Bourla stated. "I don't foresee ourselves going and buying something sizeable now because I don't want to disrupt our commercial operations, our research operations or…manufacturing [operations]."

Still on lookout for tuck-ins

That's not to say Pfizer's dealmaking has been completely sidelined. Bourla left the door open for smaller, tuck-in acquisitions that bring in intellectual property like an obesity compound or oncology asset. "We are looking at them and [deals] will happen probably this year as well, but these are smaller things," Bourla said.

For the time being, the emphasis is on digesting last year's $43-billion purchase of Seagen and its slate of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). That acquisition, according to the CEO, "has the potential to become the most successful acquisition that the company has ever done."

Piece of the obesity pie

Still, Bourla acknowledged that prior stumbles like the discontinuation of its oral GLP-1 agonist GLP-1 agonist lotiglipron last year due to liver toxicity have set Pfizer back in the booming obesity market.

While he expressed confidence that the company's remaining hopeful danuglipron can eventually compete with oral entries from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the twice-daily version has already been scrapped due to high dropout rates. Data on a once-daily formulation are due either this month or next and will inform the programme's path forward, Bourla said.

He added that the company has two other possible weight-loss treatments in the clinic right now, including the Phase I asset PF-07976016, although Pfizer has not disclosed their mechanism of action.

Large molecules

Bourla also weighed in on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the ongoing Medicare drug pricing negotiations, saying the legislation could distort R&D priorities.

Despite Pfizer being "lucky" that only one of its products – the anticoagulant Eliquis (apixaban), partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb – was among the ten drugs selected for initial Medicare price talks, Bourla warned that the legislation's favourable treatment of biologics over small molecules "will force a lot of us to make strategic moves, not based on where the science is taking us, but based on where IRA is taking us."

Still, he touted Pfizer's pivot towards large molecules like the ADCs gained through the Seagen buy, noting that within five years large molecules will account for 60% to 65% of the oncology pipeline, up from just 5% today.

As for other modalities on Pfizer's radar, Bourla said radiopharmaceuticals are attracting "high interest" from the company, "not that we have made our decision to enter into that space." He said Pfizer will jump into promising new areas "the moment we feel that we can make a difference."

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