Obesity drugs are increasingly the rage, and those companies that can land one are looking at a payday to rival anything seen during COVID-19. Healthcare company Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), who pretty much won COVID-19 by being one of the first to market with a vaccine, is taking aim at obesity itself with a new partnership with Flagship Pioneering. That wasn’t good news to investors, though, who sent Pfizer shares down over 1.5% in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s trading.
The combination of Pfizer and Flagship Pioneering’s Pioneering Medicines and Profound Therapeutics units will work toward bringing up next-generation solutions for obesity. Pfizer will be using the Profoundry Platform to identify new “protein therapeutics” designed to help reduce obesity. Meanwhile, Pfizer will get to choose which programs get advanced. This partnership effort actually extends back to July 2023, but this is just the latest initiative the duo will be tackling together.
No More Big Deals, Please
Pfizer has decided that it’s about time the company stopped binging on other companies. During the Goldman Sachs 2024 Global Healthcare Conference, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla noted that the company was taking a “breathing period” from any further merger and acquisition activity. Pfizer has made several such deals lately, dropping multiple billions on a range of companies, using the cash pulled in from its COVID-19 vaccine, among others. But now, that time has passed, Bourla noted, and Pfizer will now be focusing on “execut(ing) well on those that we have right now.”
Is Pfizer a Buy or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on PFE stock based on seven Buys, nine Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 27.69% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PFE price target of $33.50 per share implies 21.05% upside potential.
