Pfizer CEO: The activist investors are 'too late'

Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert Bourla is breathing a little easier after strong third quarter earnings results Tuesday and after the company raised full-year guidance by $1.5 billion, bringing an end to a tense month in which activist investor Starboard Value pressured the company, and Bourla, to make changes.

The company reported $17.7 billion in revenue in the third quarter and now expects between $61 billion and $64 billion for the year. This reflects a surprise boost in sales numbers for COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid amid a COVID wave in recent months.

The news is a welcome win for the company as it executes Bourla's five-point plan, which he outlined last year. The focus is on growing the company's pipeline as it faces key product patent expirations in the back half of the decade. That has been a concern for Bourla, as he believes the company's stock remains undervalued, which has been at the core of a recent fight with Starboard.

As part of the plan, Bourla has carried out cost-cutting moves, which could save more than $4 billion. He also paid $43 billion for cancer drug company Seagen, which has already brought in profits in the recent quarter.

Bourla said that given the efforts made in the past year to help boost Pfizer's stock, he believes that Starboard's attempts to change anything were too late — aligning with Wall Street commentary after Starboard made its move.

Bourla agreed with some of the points made by Starboard, such as the company not giving shareholders near-term value, but he disagreed with Starboard's assessment that he hasn't done enough to change the future outlook.

Starboard CEO Jeff Smith told Bourla that the COVID profits were not properly invested, including with the Seagen deal, to boost Pfizer's cancer drug pipeline. Smith was also not keen on the $11.6 billion purchase of Biohaven and the COVID vaccine revenue-sharing deal with BioNTech (BNTX).

But Bourla said those deals have been "transformational" for the company and account for 80% of the capital that Pfizer has deployed in the last few years — "all are performing at or better than we forecasted," he said.

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