Drugmaker Pfizer today said that fourth-quarter profit plunged 59 per cent because of discontinued operations, restructuring and other charges, and generic competition continuing to siphon off revenue from former blockbuster medicines.
Despite a 3 per cent revenue decline caused by those pressures and unfavorable currency exchange rates, Pfizer easily topped Wall Street's modest expectations.
Pfizer's stock rose 59 cents, or 2 per cent, to USD 30.25 in premarket trading.
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The world's second-biggest drugmaker said net income was USD 2.57 billion, or 39 cents per share, down from USD 6.32 billion, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the maker of Viagra, arthritis drug Xeljanz and pneumonia vaccine Prevnar said net income would have been USD 3.69 billion, or 56 cents per share. That topped analyst expectations of 52 cents per share.
Revenue totaled USD 13.56 billion, down 2 per cent. Analysts expected USD 13.36 billion.
Sales of primary care drugs fell 10 percent to USD 3.44 billion, mainly because of generic competition for Viagra in Europe and for the cholesterol fighter Lipitor.
Lipitor, the world's top-selling drug for nearly a decade until it got U.S. Generic competition two years ago, now faces cheaper copycats in Europe and Australia as well. Those smaller revenues have been shifted to the company's established products unit, which saw sales edge up 2 per cent to USD 2.42 billion.
Pfizer's specialty care division posted a 7 per cent drop in sales to USD 3.4 billion, because of generic competition in foreign countries for schizophrenia treatment Geodon and blood pressure drug Revatio. Pfizer also received lower royalties from immune disorder drug Enbrel as a co-promotion deal for that winds down.
Consumer health care revenue edged up 1 per cent to USD 943 million. The bright spot was Pfizer's fledgling cancer drug business, which posted a 26 per cent jump to USD 468 million.
The New York-based drugmaker forecast 2014 profit of USD 1.57 to USD 1.72 per share, or USD 2.20 to USD 2.30 excluding one-time items.
"We enter 2014 with confidence in the competitive positioning of our commercial businesses, the prospects for our recently launched products and the strength of our research pipeline," CEO Ian Read said in a statement.
He noted Pfizer will be reporting on midstage research results this year for experimental drugs for advanced breast cancer, high cholesterol and, for Xeljanz, testing against another immune disorder, psoriasis.
