Pfizer’s US$11b gain from new tax lifts Q4 profit

Source: Xinhua | 2018-01-31

PFIZER Inc beat analysts’ estimate for adjusted profit yesterday, helped by strong demand for its pneumonia vaccine Prevnar and rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz, while reporting an US$11 billion gain from the new tax law.

The largest US drugmaker also forecast full-year earnings and revenue well ahead of Wall Street estimates and said it would invest about US$5 billion in the United States over the next five years.

The drugmaker said it would pay about US$15 billion in taxes over eight years to bring funds kept overseas back to the United States under the new tax laws.

Pfizer said the 2018 forecast reflected a full-year contribution from the consumer healthcare business, which the drugmaker plans to divest or spin-off this year.

The company said it booked a gain of US$11.34 billion from the new tax law, leading to a surge in fourth-quarter profit to US$12.27 billion, or US$2.02 per share.

Excluding the tax gain and other items, the company earned 62 cents per share. Revenue rose marginally to US$13.70 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 56 cents per share and revenue of US$13.68 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Prevnar raked in sales of US$1.53 billion, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier, and above hopes of US$1.4 billion, according to consensus estimate from Barclays.

Xeljanz sales jumped 47.5 percent to US$410 million, beating estimates of US$393 million.

However, sales of the company’s breast cancer treatment Ibrance came below consensus estimate, despite an 11.4 percent increase to US$716 million.