Pfizer Inc. (PFE) is an American global pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York City,[3] with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut. It is among the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its shares have been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 2004. Pfizer develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of medical disciplines, including immunology, oncology, cardiology, diabetology/endocrinology, and neurology. Pfizer's products include the blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), used to lower LDL blood cholesterol; Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain/fibromyalgia; Diflucan (fluconazole), an oral antifungal medication; Zithromax (azithromycin), an antibiotic; Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction; and Celebrex/Celebra (celecoxib), an anti-inflammatory drug. Pfizer was founded in 1849 by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart in New York City as a manufacturer of fine chemicals. Its discovery of Terramycin (oxytetracycline) in 1950 put it on a path towards becoming a research-based pharmaceutical company. Pfizer has made numerous acquisitions, including Warner–Lambert in 2000, Pharmacia in 2003, and Wyeth in 2009 (the largest of the three at $68 billion). In 2016, Pfizer Inc. is expected to merge with Allergan plc, in a deal worth $160 billion, to create the Ireland-based "Pfizer plc".
New U.S. inversion rules threaten Pfizer-Allergan deal The U.S. Treasury Department took new steps on Monday to curb tax-avoiding corporate "inversions," with the pending $160 billion merger of Pfizer Inc and Allergan Plc seen as a potential casualty. The changes, less than a year before President Barack Obama ends his term, follow sharp political criticism of Pfizer's and Allergan's merger, which would be the largest inversion deal ever. While the rules did not single out this deal, one of the provisions takes aim directly at it. Shares of Dublin-based Allergan fell 22 percent in after-market trading, while shares of New York-based Pfizer rose 3 percent. The companies said they were reviewing the Treasury Department's notice. "Prior to completing any review, we won't speculate on any potential impact,” the companies said in a joint statement. The federal government has grappled with a wave of inversions in recent years as U.S. companies have sought to slash their tax bills by redomiciling overseas, though their core operations and management usually remain in the United States even as they claim a new tax home. Several U.S. presidential candidates, including Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, have seized on the issue in their campaigns. Obama, a Democrat, has called repeatedly for action by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress on inversions, but lawmakers have done little. He repeated his appeal to Congress on Monday and said he welcomed the Treasury's action. The Treasury said in a statement it will impose a three-year limit on foreign companies bulking up on U.S. assets to avoid ownership limits for a later inversion deal. "In simple words, Allergan's key deals in the prior 36 months won't be counted (as far as meeting the inversion threshold is concerned) when doing the ownership math for the Pfizer-Allergan deal," Evercore analyst Umer Raffat wrote in a note. These deals include the $66 billion merger of Allergan Plc and Actavis Plc, the $25 billion purchase of Forest Laboratories and the $5 billion takeover of Warner Chilcott. "The real issue is not so much what Allergan may prove or disprove, or whether Treasury overstepped its authority. The real question is whether Pfizer reads today's regulations as reason enough to not continue to pursue the deal," Raffat wrote. Under the agreement between Pfizer and Allergan, either party may terminate the deal if an adverse change in U.S. law would cause the combined company to be treated as a U.S. domestic corporation for federal income tax purposes. The terminating party would have to pay the other company up to $400 million for its expenses, according to the merger agreement. Treasury also said it is proposing rules to tackle a practice known as earnings stripping that is often undertaken following an inversion. Earnings stripping covers a range of financial dealings that shrink the taxable U.S. profits of multinationals. A common strategy is to load up the U.S. unit of a redomiciled foreign company with debt and then shift U.S. profits to the new lower-tax foreign jurisdiction through interest payments. The new Treasury rules would restrict related-party debt for U.S. subsidiaries in dealings that do not finance new investment in the United States. As part of these proposed regulations, the Internal Revenue Service would also be able to divide debt instruments into part debt and part equity, Treasury said. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the new actions would "further rein in" inversions, while he repeated his call that only legislation in Congress could prevent such deals. But at least one business group, the Organization for International Investment, which advocates for foreign-based companies, condemned the new rules. "Treasury’s action would increase the cost of investing and expanding across the United States for all foreign companies and put at risk more than 12 million American workers that are supported by foreign direct investment in the United States," Nancy McLemon, the group's chief executive, said in a statement. Such tax avoidance schemes have long been a thorn in Treasury's side. The proposed deal between Pfizer and Allergan, which would create the world's largest drugmaker, prompted renewed scrutiny. Pfizer plans to redomicile in Ireland, where Allergan is based, and the companies expect to complete their merger in the second half of this year. Last November, following the announcement of the Allergan-Pfizer deal, Treasury clamped down on inversions by limiting a U.S. acquirer's ability to set up a new foreign parent in a third country and to "stuff" assets into a foreign parent to meet post-inversion ownership limits. On Treasury's latest steps, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, who has been a co-sponsor of legislation to curb inversions, said in a statement: "These regulations will make potential inverters and foreign acquirers think twice before making the leap, and those bad actors should be on notice that we intend to clamp down even further." LINK - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-inversions-idUSKCN0X1299
Pfizer Said To Terminate $160 Billion Merger With Allergan Pfizer Inc. (PFE) decided to terminate its $160 billion merger with Allergan Plc (AGN), a person familiar with the matter said, marking the end of the largest ever health-care acquisition. Pfizer will need to pay a $400 million fee to Allergan for expenses relating to the deal, the person said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Allergan, which is run from New Jersey but has a legal domicile in Dublin, last year agreed to merge with Pfizer in a deal that would have given New York-based Pfizer a foreign address and a lower tax rate. Representatives for Pfizer and Allergan declined to comment. CNBC reported earlier that the two companies would mutually end their planned merger, without naming its sources. The Treasury Department said Monday that new rules would limit companies’ ability to participate in inversion transactions if they’ve already done them within the past 36 months. Allergan has been involved in several such acquisitions in that time frame. In a corporate inversion, a U.S. company merges with a smaller foreign firm and then transfers the new company’s tax address offshore. Pfizer had been examining how it might be able to challenge new rules from the U.S. Treasury Department, people with knowledge of the matter said earlier. LINK - http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ar160-billion-merger-with-allergan/ar-BBrpRb8
FDA approves 1st cheaper version of J&J's top drug Remicade WASHINGTON — Federal health officials have approved a cheaper version of Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) blockbuster drug, Remicade, a pricey biotech medicine for inflammatory diseases. The approval of Inflectra Tuesday is only the second time that the Food and Drug Administration has approved a quasi-generic biotech drug for the U.S. market. These so-called biosimilar drugs, already available in Europe, have the potential to generate billions of dollars in savings for insurers, doctors and patients in coming years. Inflectra, from drugmakers Celltrion and Pfizer (PFE), is approved for a half-dozen uses, including psoriasis and five other conditions in which the immune system attacks the body's tissue. The drug helps reduce inflammation and control the immune system, which helps slow those diseases. Remicade, first approved in 1998, is J&J's top-selling medicine with sales of $6.56 billion last year. Biotech drugs are powerful, injected medicines produced in living cells that are typically much more expensive than traditional, chemical-based drugs. In 2014, the latest year data is available, six of the 10 best-selling medicines globally were biologics, with about $49 billion in combined sales. For decades, biotech drugs lacked generic competition because the FDA had no system to approve cheaper versions. That changed in 2012 and the agency approved the first biosimilar drug last March — a cheaper version of the blockbuster Amgen drug Neupogen. Biosimilar is the industry term for generic biotech drugs, used to indicate that they are not exact copies of the original biologic medicines. "Biosimilars can provide access to important treatment options for patients who need them," said Janet Woodcock, the FDA's director for drugs. Remicade sales slipped 4 percent in 2015 due to overseas competition from biosimilar versions already made by Pfizer and Celltrion Inc., which is based in South Korea. New York-based Pfizer will market Inflectra in the U.S. The company said it plans to launch the drug in 2016 but declined to comment on its price. "Each biosimilar molecule has specific drivers that determine market price," the company said in an emailed statement. Pfizer shares rose 64 cents, or 2 percent, to close at $31.36 in trading Tuesday. A key factor in U.S. uptake of the new drug will depend on whether it is reserved for first-time patients or whether patients already on Remicade are switched to the cheaper medication. Many states are still deciding whether pharmacists can substitute a biosimilar for the original biologic drug without the prescribing doctor's permission, as usually happens with generic pills. Other blockbuster biotech drugs expected to face U.S. competition in coming years include AbbVie's anti-inflammatory drug Humira, which is from the same family as Remicade. Humira was the best-selling drug in the world last year with sales of $14 billion.
Reported before open yesterday (5/3/16) Earnings: EPS $0.67 Revenue $13.01B Estimates: EPS $0.55 Revenue $12.02B Up 2.77% yesterday
Upcoming dividend information: Ex-Div-Date: 11/8/16 Payment Date: 12/1/16 Dividend: $0.30 Current Price: $31.93 Annual Yield: 3.76%
Pfizer (PFE) Q3 Earnings Lag; Cuts View, Sheds Bococizumab Pfizer Inc.’s (PFE - Free Report) third-quarter adjusted earnings per share came in at 61 cents, a penny below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 62 cents. The pharma giant’s earnings were 2% above the year-ago quarter as inclusion of Hospira operations, a lower tax rate, and a lower share count offset higher costs. Revenues missed expectations. Pfizer posted revenues of $13.05 billion, lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.10 billion but up 8% from the year-ago period.
Pfizer beats Street 4Q forecasts Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...3391373867e_story.html?utm_term=.1ba6057221f6 The New York company’s per-share profit was $2.02, or 62 cents when adjusted for non-recurring gains and discontinued operations. That’s 6 cents better than analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research had projected. The drugmaker posted revenue of $13.7 billion in the period, also surpassing Wall Street expectations of $13.61 billion. Pfizer expects full-year earnings in the range of $2.90 to $3 per share, with revenue in the range of $53.5 billion to $55.5 billion.
