Pfizer lifts guidance as Prevnar, Ibrance trigger Q2 beats

Analysts expected Pfizer's ($PFE) Established Products division to keep suffering on generic competition to Celebrex and Zyvox in Q2. But they didn't foresee new-launch Ibrance and key vaccine Prevnar 13 picking up as much slack as they did, helping the pharma giant surpass both top- and bottom-line estimates and prompting it to up its guidance.

Revenue checked in at $11.85 billion for the quarter, topping consensus estimates of $11.42 billion, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Schoenebaum wrote in a Tuesday note to investors. The revenue haul helped EPS hit 56 cents, besting the 52 cents Wall Street forecast.

Those performances put the company's guidance midpoints for both full-year revenue and EPS on the move. Pfizer now predicts revenue of $45 billion to $46 billion, up from the $44 billion to $46 billion range it had previously pointed toward. Adjusted EPS expectations crept upward, too, now registering at $2.01 to $2.07 per share from a prior $1.95 to $2.05 per share.

Pfizer has a pair of standout products to thank for the solid quarter, beginning with vaccine heavyweight Prevnar 13. The world's best-selling jab netted $1.5 billion in worldwide sales, with $880 million of that tally coming from its home country--a leap of 87% over the year-ago period. Analysts had pegged Prevnar's U.S. sales at just $634 million for the quarter, and Pfizer attributed the beat to strong U.S. uptake in adults.

More surprising, though, were the numbers from cancer newcomer Ibrance. The period marked the breast cancer treatment's first full quarter of sales, and it delivered, posting $140 million to nearly double analysts' $72 million consensus. As CEO Ian Read told investors on a conference call, Ibrance's market share among patients with estrogen-receptor-positive, HER2-negative tumors reached about 22% for the quarter, up from 10% in Q1.

Pfizer hopes Ibrance can keep the ball rolling, and it's working to help it do just that. In April, impressive second-line data for the med convinced Pfizer to call an early halt to its PALMOA-3 trial, giving the company reason to believe it'll have no problem building beyond its current first-line indication. And the drugmaker expects to file for European approval in this year's third quarter, Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson wrote in a note to clients.

- read Pfizer's release

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