October 29, 2014
By Krystle Vermes, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ian Read told Bloomberg on Oct. 27 that he would not be hesitant to move overseas, despite new American tax rules to discourage companies from decamping abroad.
Pfizer’s CEO claims that this would not stop the company if it received an enticing offer. “If we believe the value is still there and we believe, under our interpretation of these rules, there is still value, I see no reason why we wouldn’t be able to do an inversion,” Read told Bloomberg in an interview.
Changes to the tax laws could lower the value Pfizer assigns to tax advantages. Pfizer has allegedly been looking for a deal that would add to its pipeline, cut costs and help it avoid the 35 percent corporate tax rate.
Third Quarter Results
On Oct. 28, Pfizer released its third quarter results for 2014, showing reported revenues of $12.4 billion. However, this is compared to $12.6 billion documented during the same quarter in 2013. As of the third quarter, Pfizer also repurchased $4.2 billion of common stock to date in 2014.
“We remain strategically focused on driving increased innovation and enhancing our global competitive position both in terms of operational and financial efficiencies and remain opportunistic regarding business development that can enhance or accelerate our strategy,” said Read. “Given our continued strong financial position, I see Pfizer as well positioned to potentially allocate capital for the benefit of shareholders across multiple financial and strategic opportunities.”
In July, Pfizer announced that it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire Baxter International Inc.’s portfolio of market vaccines for $635 million. As a part of the transaction, Pfizer will acquire vaccines including NeisVac-C, a vaccine that helps protect against meningitis, as well as FSME-Immun/TicoVac.,which prevents tick-borne encephalitis.
“Overall, I am pleased with our third-quarter 2014 financial results despite the continued negative impact from product losses of exclusivity and the termination of certain co-promotion collaborations,” said Frank D’Amelio, chief financial officer of Pfizer. “We updated certain components of our 2014 financial guidance to reflect our performance to date, recent changes in foreign exchange rates and our outlook for the remainder of the year, which continues to include the anticipated negative impact from multi-source generic competition for Celebrex in the U.S. beginning in December 2014.”
