Pfizer Inc. slumped after Paxlovid, its pill for treating COVID-19, failed to show benefit as a preventive therapy in a trial.
Paxlovid is poised to become one of the fastest-selling drugs of all time, with $24 billion in projected 2022 sales, according to analytics group Airfinity Ltd. Pfizer has also reaped billions in global sales from its COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said late Friday (April 29) that the drug failed to hit its main goal of reducing the risk that adults exposed to SARS-CoV-2 through contact with a household member would become infected.
What? Pfizer couldn’t manipulate the data sufficiently to show that paxlovid prevents COVID? Data must have been really bad, wow. Lets re-look at all the IVM prevention trials – ALL MARKEDLY POSITIVE. This is exhausting – Pierre Kory, MD MPA
The shares fell 2.2% at 9:36 a.m. in New York. They had declined 17% this year through Friday’s close.
The trial failure, along with reports of rebounding SARS-CoV-2 levels in some COVID-19 patients who have completed a course of Paxlovid, are unlikely to change the drug’s sales potential, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts John Murphy and Sam Fazeli.