Pfizer NYSE: PFE has rebuilt its commercial model around newer and acquired products while reducing exposure to its COVID-19 franchise, according to Alexandre de Germay, the company’s chief international commercial officer and executive vice president.
Speaking with Chris Schott at a company event, de Germay said Pfizer has redirected spending toward markets and products where it believes it can generate stronger returns. He said the company had been spreading resources too broadly following the acquisition of Seagen and a series of product and vaccine launches.
“We needed to actually refocus on our portfolio, pipeline, and understand where we can win and redeploy the resources behind those territories and behind those products,” de Germay said.
New Products Become a Larger Base
De Germay said new and newly acquired products in Pfizer’s international business generated about $500 million in 2023 and have since risen to $4 billion. At the global level, he said new acquired and launched products produced $3.2 billion in the second quarter, up 18% following 22% growth in the first quarter.
At the same time, the company has reduced its dependence on COVID-19 products. De Germay said Pfizer generated about $11 billion from COVID vaccines and antivirals in 2024, approximately $6.7 billion in 2025, and has guided for $4 billion in 2026.
The company has also cut operating expenses and halted certain launches, commercial structures and clinical studies that it viewed as less productive, he said. In the international organization, sales-force productivity has tripled over three years through more focused resource deployment, according to de Germay.
He pointed to vaccines and oncology as examples of markets with further growth potential. In Brazil, Pfizer has expanded Prevnar 20 vaccination, reaching an 80% vaccination rate among the country’s 2.5 million babies, he said. In older-adult vaccines, he cited vaccination rates of 25% of the target population in France, 28% in Germany and 3% in Japan as evidence of potential room for growth.
De Germay also highlighted LORBRENA in lung cancer, saying it has reached between 60% and 70% of first-line new patient starts in certain markets and 77% in France. The product generated $250 million internationally during the quarter, which he said puts it at roughly a $1 billion annualized level.
Pipeline Focused on Existing Strengths
Pfizer currently has 31 Phase III clinical studies underway, de Germay said. He described the pipeline as increasingly aligned with therapeutic areas where the company already has commercial and medical capabilities, including thoracic cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, vaccines and internal medicine.
In thoracic cancer, Pfizer has three Phase III candidates, including two antibody-drug conjugates and a bispecific candidate targeting VEGF and PD-L1, according to de Germay. He said the company’s commercial infrastructure and established presence with LORBRENA could support additional assets in the category.
He also discussed chronic weight management as a major opportunity. De Germay said Pfizer recently commercialized ecnoglutide, its first GLP-1 product in China, and views the broader market as consisting of numerous patient segments with different needs for efficacy, tolerability, dosing and access.
Pfizer’s obesity portfolio includes bempaglutide in Phase III, a GLP-1 and amylin combination expected to read out by year-end, and additional oral and ultra-long-acting programs being developed by the Metsera team, he said. Pfizer will also continue evaluating external opportunities, including potential assets from China.
Pricing, China and AI
On international pricing, de Germay said Pfizer’s most-favored-nation agreement helped remove the threat of tariffs to the industry and has supported discussions about pricing innovation more fairly in markets outside the United States. He cited changes in the United Kingdom, including inflation being reflected in NICE assessments, a reduction in clawback mechanisms and a commitment to allocate 0.6% of GDP to innovative medicines.
He said governments in Europe and Japan are facing greater pressure to improve conditions for life-sciences innovation as China’s biotechnology industry expands. China produces about 300,000 science and technology PhDs annually, he said, while about 50% of global clinical studies across antibody-drug conjugate and bispecific platforms are being run in China.
Pfizer has pursued deals with Chinese companies including Innovent and 3SBio, while also preparing to compete with Chinese drugmakers in global markets, de Germay said.
Artificial intelligence is already contributing to commercial productivity, he said, including sales-force analytics, training, medical reporting and regulatory paperwork. Looking ahead, he said electronic health records could help reshape clinical development by enabling companies to identify potential study participants more efficiently.
In his additional role chairing Pfizer’s portfolio management team, de Germay said the company is evaluating development and business-development opportunities not only individually, but also based on their contribution to the overall portfolio. The approach considers returns, projected sales, technical and regulatory probabilities of success, as well as competitive, access and regulatory “swing factors.”
About Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)
Pfizer Inc is a global biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines and vaccines. Its portfolio addresses a range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, inflammation and immunology, internal medicine, hospital care, rare diseases and infectious diseases. The company serves patients and healthcare providers in markets worldwide.
Pfizer's products include the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine, the Prevnar family of pneumococcal vaccines, and medicines such as Eliquis, Ibrance, Vyndaqel and Zavzaret.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
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