Pfizer to cut $9 bn from sales guidance

Plummeting demand for Covid shots and pills caused Pfizer Inc. to cut $9 billion from its total annual sales guidance as the drug giant grapples with a stark decline for what had been marquee products.

Some analysts saw the move as an opportunity to reset investor expectations, including Jefferies's Akash Tewari who raised the stock to a buy from hold.

The company had already slashed per-share adjusted earnings expectations to $1.45 a share to $1.65 a share on Friday evening after reaching an agreement with the US government to take back nearly 8 million doses of Paxlovid this year.

Pfizer's actions allow the firm to move its inventory into the private US health system where the drugmaker is likely to make more money off of the product. But the severity of the guidance cut-Pfizer's biggest in at least a decade-raised questions about the management's ability to forecast.