What Could Send Pfizer Stock Soaring?
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Pfizer (PFE) sold $16.6 billion of medicines in fiscal Q3 2026, about what it sold a year earlier. That flat total obscures underlying growth. Management said sales outside its COVID-19 products grew 7% on its operational measure, while the COVID-19 products declined. A group of newer drugs is among the products still growing, and management is counting on them as older ones lose market exclusivity. So how much do those newer drugs sell today, and how fast are they growing?
Pfizer’s Newer Drugs Sold $3.8 Billion In Fiscal Q3
Management groups its newer drugs as launched and acquired products, which brought in $3.8 billion in fiscal Q3 2026. Management said they grew 32% on its operational measure, led by Padcev, Nurtec and Lorbrena.
The acquisitions are doing their part. Management said the legacy Seagen portfolio grew 39% in the U.S. from a year earlier, led by Padcev, while the acquired Biohaven business grew 33% on its operational measure.
Management plans to keep spending on this group, saying it continues to invest behind these products to soften the sales it expects to lose over the next several years as older drugs lose exclusivity.
How Much Of Pfizer’s Sales Come From Newer Drugs?
The newer drugs accounted for about 23% of Pfizer’s revenue in fiscal Q3 2026. Even growing 32% on management’s operational measure, they could not offset lower COVID-19 sales, and the reported total slipped 0.4% from a year earlier.
Over the past twelve months, Pfizer’s revenue grew 1.3%. Management is aiming much higher, targeting revenue growth that averages in the high single digits a year from the end of 2028 to the end of 2033. This target allows for the chance that some drugs in testing fail.
Pfizer stock has already beaten the market, returning 29.7% over the past twelve months, including dividends, against 9.9% for the S&P 500. On November 5, the stock closed 4.4% below its highest close of the past year. Yet you still pay 2.6 times sales for Pfizer, against 3.3 for the S&P 500, so the price appears to assume slower growth than the market’s.
Can Pfizer’s Newer Drugs Replace The Older Ones?
Not yet, and more exclusivity losses are coming soon. On the fiscal Q3 2026 call, management named key drivers for 2027. These include the loss of exclusivity for Ibrance and Xtandi in the U.S. and, at the end of 2026, for Eliquis outside the U.S., with the ramp-up of new launches pulling the other way.
Management also says analysts expect less from some of its drugs than the company does. Analysts forecast $600 million for Elrexfio, its multiple myeloma drug, against $5 billion for a competing product, management said. Executives aim to show that Elrexfio works about as well and is better tolerated, and said its eligible patient population could grow about five times if further studies and regulators back it.
Pfizer’s 2027 revenue guidance, which management plans to give around the middle of December, is the number to watch. Management already raised its 2026 revenue forecast with its fiscal Q3 results.
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