Pfizer

Take out the fading COVID products and Pfizer's sales grew 7% this quarter. The Eliquis blood thinner alone was up 25%. Total sales held steady at about 16.6 billion dollars, and management raised its full year sales forecast to 62 to 64 billion dollars, up from 60.5 to 62.5 billion.

Medicines Pfizer recently launched or bought brought in 3.8 billion dollars this quarter, up 32% from a year ago. Bladder cancer drug Padcev grew 55% and migraine pill Nurtec grew 33%. Next up is a once a month weight loss drug from its Metsera deal, with 10 final stage studies running or planned this year, putting Pfizer in the hottest race in medicine.

Several of Pfizer's biggest sellers, including the fast growing Eliquis, lose patent protection before 2030. That puts an estimated 14 to 15 billion dollars of yearly sales at risk from cheaper copycats. Older products are already slipping: the Prevnar vaccines fell 10% this quarter as fewer Americans got vaccinated, and COVID pill Paxlovid dropped 63%.

Pfizer carries about 62.7 billion dollars in debt against roughly 14.3 billion in cash and short term investments, and it isn't buying back any stock this year while it pays that down. A new cost cutting plan aims to save 2.5 billion dollars by 2029, but it comes with about 6 billion dollars in one time costs.