Pfizer Boasts Strong Oncology Portfolio: Can it Sustain Growth?
Pfizer PFE is one of the largest and most successful drugmakers in oncology. It boasts a strong portfolio of approved cancer medicines as well as a robust pipeline of cancer candidates with a focus on multiple modalities, including small molecules, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and immuno-oncology biologics.
The addition of Seagen in 2023 also strengthened its position in oncology by adding four ADCs — Adcetris, Padcev, Tukysa and Tivdak. The acquired Seagen products contributed meaningfully to Pfizer's revenues in 2024 and in the first quarter of 2025. Seagen also has some next-generation ADC candidates in its pipeline.
Pfizer's oncology revenues grew 7% on an operational basis in the first quarter of 2025, driven by drugs like Xtandi, Lorbrena, the Braftovi-Mektovi combination and Padcev.
Pfizer has also ventured into the oncology biosimilars space and markets six biosimilars for cancer. Pfizer has also advanced its oncology clinical pipeline with several candidates entering late-stage development, like sasanlimab, vepdegestrant and sigvotatug vedotin. In May, Pfizer inked an exclusive licensing deal with China's 3SBio for the latter's dual PD-1 and VEGF inhibitor, which will strengthen its oncology pipeline.
Pfizer is also working on expanding the labels of approved oncology products like Padcev and Adcetris, among others.
With all the above developments, Pfizer's future in cancer treatment looks promising.
Competition in the Oncology Space
Other large players in the oncology space are AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK and Bristol-Myers BMY.
For AstraZeneca, oncology sales now comprise around 41% of total revenues. Sales in its oncology segment rose 13% in the first quarter of 2025. AstraZeneca's strong oncology performance was driven by medicines such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo).
Merck's key oncology medicines are PD-LI inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounts for around 50% of Merck's pharmaceutical sales.
Bristol-Myers' key cancer drug is PD-LI inhibitor, Opdivo, which accounts for around 20% of its total revenues.
PFE's Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Pfizer's stock has declined 6.8% so far this year against an increase of 0.2% for the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, Pfizer appears attractive relative to the industry and is trading below its 5-year mean. Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 7.77 forward earnings, lower than 15.05 for the industry and the stock's 5-year mean of 10.90.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings has risen from $2.98 per share to $3.06 per share, while that for 2026 has gone up from $3.00 to $3.09 per share over the past 60 days.
Pfizer has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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