Pfizer spent more than four hours Thursday laying out its oncology program to investors. But the company also spent some time talking about the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act on its pipeline.
The drug giant, which is facing investor dissatisfaction after a year in which its stock dropped 44%, said it would be focusing on drugs that are based on proteins, not small molecule pills as it has traditionally developed. (Pfizer’s current best-seller in oncology, Ibrance for breast cancer, is a small molecule pill.) It said the mix of small molecule drugs in its cancer portfolio will drop from 94% last year to 35% in 2030.
That matters because small molecules are more vulnerable to generic competition and the Medicare price negotiation introduced by the IRA. Suneet Varma, the commercial president of Pfizer’s oncology unit, said “this planned shift to biologics is expected to support the accelerated growth in both the top and bottom line,” referring to the revenue and profit lines of a balance sheet.