Activist investor takes nearly $1B stake in Pfizer, eyes performance turnaround

The news: Activist investor Starboard Value has taken a nearly $1 billion stake in Pfizer. It aims to turn the drugmaker’s performance around, per The Wall Street Journal.

Zooming out: Pfizer has had a rough go since the halcyon days of 2022, when its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral drug Paxlovid helped generate over $100 billion in sales.

• Revenues from Pfizer’s COVID-19 products dropped to $12.5 billion in 2023, down 78% from the $57 billion apex of 2022.
• The drugmaker’s other products have struggled to fill this gap, dropping Pfizer’s market cap from about $290 billion in late 2022 to nearly $165 billion as of the time of writing.