"After leading Pfizer through the frantic race to develop the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, CEO Albert Bourla has set his sights on a new, arguably more difficult moonshot. "We saved the world from Covid, now we'll save the world from cancer," Bourla told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell, outlining the company's massive pivot toward oncology following the pandemic. This ambition is backed by a historic reallocation of capital."
"The urgency behind this pivot is driven by financial necessity, Bourla said. While the pandemic rocketed Pfizer to record heights-reaching $100 billion in sales with COVID-related revenues hitting $56 billion in 2022-the decline was precipitous. By 2023, COVID-related revenues had plummeted to approximately $12 billion, significantly impacting the company's stock price. Simultaneously, Bourla faces a looming "patent cliff" beginning in 2026, when Pfizer will lose exclusivity on several lucrative drugs."
Albert Bourla is steering Pfizer from pandemic-era success toward an aggressive oncology focus. Pfizer reinvested pandemic windfalls into a $23 billion spending spree in 2023 aimed at business development and scientific innovation. COVID-related sales peaked at $56 billion in 2022 within record company sales near $100 billion, then fell to about $12 billion in 2023, contributing to a stock decline. Patent expirations beginning in 2026 threaten several high-revenue drugs. Pfizer now directs more than 40% of annual R&D spending to oncology as part of a strategy to develop transformative cancer therapies and secure future revenue.
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