Some one is pumping out information that says people are lining up for covid and flu shots.
The Newsweek report on Pfizer’s financial performance suggests otherwise.
Pfizer Announces Layoffs as COVID Vaccine Revenue Slumps
Pfizer is slashing its headcount after announcing it was going to cut its full-year revenue forecast by 13% earlier this week amid slumping sales of its COVID-19 vaccine.
On October 13, the American pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation said it expected its revenue for 2023 to be between $58 billion and $61 billion, down from an initial forecast of between $67 billion and $70 billion.
The company earned record revenue topping $100 billion last year. Revenues from the COVID-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech and antiviral treatment Paxlovid alone made Pfizer more than $56 billion in revenues.
To make up for the lower-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment this year, Pfizer announced it will cut $3.5 billion worth of jobs and expenses to gain savings through 2024, though it did not provide details on exactly how many people it will let go.
Ozempic for Kids? Drugmakers Test Weight-Loss Shots for 6-Year-Olds
Pharmaceutical companies are looking to get buzzy weight-loss shots approved for younger and younger patients. Eli Lilly & Co. is planning to test its diabetes drug Mounjaro for patients six and up with obesity, according to a person familiar with the trial who didn’t want to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Novo Nordisk A/S is also testing Saxenda — an older and less powerful version of its blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — in kids as young as six.
“We are certainly committed to innovation in this space that’s going to address all segments of the population that’s affected,” said Nadia Ahmad, Eli Lilly’s associate vice president of medical development for obesity. The drug company started recruiting for a trial in kids 12 and up this week.
If either of these drugs is approved, they would be the first weight-loss medicines known as GLP-1 receptor agonists available to patients that young anywhere in the world. So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have only greenlit the use of such treatments in adolescents 12 and older. The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in July quietly terminated its review of Wegovy for teens.
For drugmakers, adding younger patients also has a huge financial upside. A projection released by Goldman Sachs this week that estimates GLP-1s will bring in $100 billion by 2030 doesn’t factor in sales to kids, who would take the drugs for even longer than adults. Studies have found the treatments only work as long as people stay on them, meaning that in many cases people will take them for their entire lives if they want to keep the weight off.