Biosimilars and key brands drive Pfizer to raise forecasts

Anticoagulant Eliquis saw sales rise by 47% to $889 million, breast cancer drug Ibrance was up 20% to $1 billion, and rheumatoid arthritis treatment Xeljanz had sales of $463 million, up 38% and beating estimates of $432 million.

Profits rose 26% in Q2 to reach $3.9 billion, while revenue was $13.5 billion, up from forecasts of $13.3 billion, a rise of 4%.

Chief financial officer Frank D'Amelio said: "We are raising our 2018 guidance range for adjusted diluted [earnings per share], which at the midpoint implies 13 percent growth compared to last year."

Meanwhile, CEO Ian Read called the results "solid" and said they were driven by the growth of key brands as well as biosimilars and emerging markets.

Biosimilar product sales were up 55% to $188 million.

Nevertheless, he added that "the performance of these growth drivers was partially offset by product losses of exclusivity, a decline in legacy established products in developed markets and ongoing legacy Hospira supply shortages".

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