Is there a doctor in the house? Pfizer reports critically low income and revenues in financial results

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on January 30th reported its financial results for Q4 and the full year of 2023.

The company reported disappointing results, to say the least, including $58.5 billion in revenues for 2023 and $14.24 billion in revenues in Q4, down 42 percent and 41 percent from 2022 year-on-year.

Paxlovid and Comirnaty

A lot of this seemed to be due to acquisitions Paxlovid and Comirnaty, as the company said in its earnings announcement that:

• Expected Decline in Comirnaty and Paxlovid Revenues drove a 41 percent operational decrease in YoY revenues
• Excluding contributions from Comirnaty and Paxlovid, revenues grew seven percent operationally, driven by a combination of new product and indication launches and in-line product growth

The company's income plummeted 93 percent in 2023, from $31,37 billion in 2022 to just $2.11 billion for the full year 2023, and a loss of $3.369 million in Q4 last year.

In addition, EPS was down a sickly 93 percent to weigh in at just $0.37 for the whole year compared to $5.47 for 2022.

Post-Covid syndrome

All of this appeared to reflect a company struggling to recapture the highs of its pandemic-era billions, as well as facing present-day market headwinds.

According to the company, Pfizer achieved moderately better success where only non-COVID products were concerned, with CFO David Denton saying in the results that: