BIG PHARMA EARNINGS WATCH: MERCK, ELI LILLY, AMGEN, PFIZER, GLAXOSMITHKLINE, ASTRAZENECA

New Earnings Reports Show Big Pharma Giants Continue to Reap Massive Profits, Beating Wall Street Expectations After Repeatedly Hiking Prices

New earnings reports for the fourth quarter of 2021 demonstrate that the pharmaceutical industry continues to rake in massive profits after having hiked prices of prescription drugs repeatedly throughout the pandemic. Big Pharma giants Merck, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and AstraZeneca all recently announced earnings for the fourth quarter that bested Wall Street expectations.

Merck

• Merck overperformed Wall Street sales and revenue expectations, reporting Q4 earnings of $4.58 billion.
• Merck reported $48.7 billion in revenue for the full year, up 17 percent.
• Merck’s pharmaceutical sales were a particularly strong driver for the company, bringing in $12 billion, up 23 percent year-over-year.
• Merck’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda generated $4.58 billion in sales, a 15 percent increase for the quarter.

Eli Lilly

• Eli Lilly reported sales that beat Wall Street expectations, reporting $8 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter.
• The company brought in $28.3 billion for the full year in 2021, a 15 percent year-over-year increase.
• Sales of the company’s COVID-19 antibody treatments generated $1.06 billion.
• Blockbuster diabetes drug Trulicity generated $1.88 billion in sales – up 25 percent year over year.

Amgen

• Amgen reported Q4 earnings that topped Wall Street forecasts.
• The company reported revenue of $6.85 billion – up 3 percent year-over-year.
• Amgen reported earnings of $1.9 billion in the quarter, compared with $1.6 billion in Q4 2020.
• The company announced it would be repurchasing9 million shares in stock buybacks in Q4, totaling 21.7 million repurchased shares in 2021.

Pfizer

• Pfizer once again beat Wall Street profit expectations in the fourth quarter, driven by monster sales of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.
• The company smashed its previous year earnings and sales numbers, notching a 152 percent increase in earnings for the quarter and a 105 percent increase in sales year-over-year.
• Pfizer reported $23.8 billion in Q4 revenue, a more than doubling of the $11.6 billion the company brought in in Q4 of 2020.
• Full-year 2021 revenues totaled $81.3 billion, an increase of 95 percent, compared to full-year 2020.
• Pfizer brought in $37 billion from its COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, while blockbuster cancer drugs Eliquis and Ibrance brought in $1.5 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively.

GlaxoSmithKline

• GlaxoSmithKline beat Wall Street earnings and revenue expectations for the fourth quarter.
• GSK reported $13 billion in Q4 revenue, with pharmaceutical sales up 25 percent.
• Sales for GSK’s oncology division were up 18 percent year-over-year, driven by strong performance from blockbuster cancer drug Zeluja, which rose 24 percent in the quarter.

AstraZeneca

• AstraZeneca reported earnings and sales that topped Wall Street expectations for the quarter.
• AstraZeneca brought in $12.0 billion in Q4 revenue, up 62 percent year-over-year.
• Full-year 2021 revenue rose 38 percent to $37.42 billion.
• Strong sales were driven by the company’s oncology portfolio, which rose 21 percent year over year.
• The company performed so well in 2021, that CEO Pascal Soriot announced AstraZeneca would raise its dividend, the first time the company has done so in a decade.

The strong earnings reports from the Big Pharma companies comes against a backdrop of significant price hikes launched during the pandemic, and as the brand name pharmaceutical giants have faced repeated backlash for engaging in anti-competitive tactics and questionable behavior.

Merck

• Merck hiked prices on nearly 30 prescription drugs in 2022, including a five percent increase on neuromuscular blockade drug Bridion.
• Merck increased prices 20 times in 2021, including on blockbuster diabetes medicines Januvia and Janumet – both by five percent.
• The brand name company also raised the price of HIV therapy treatment Isentress by almost five percent last year.
• Merck’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda, which brought in $4.58 billion in Q4, is on track to become “the highest-selling drug in the world and would be a Fortune 200 company on its own.”
• In 2020, Merck hiked drug prices at least 45 times.

Eli Lilly

• Eli Lilly rang in the new year with more than a dozen price hikes, including a five percent increase on top-selling diabetes drug Trulicity.
• In 2021, Eli Lilly was among the Big Pharma giants that announced new price hikes despite the unprecedented economic uncertainty facing millions of Americans grappling with the pandemic.
• This past summer, Eli Lilly increased the price of two of its cancer drugs – Cyramza and Alimta.
• In 2020, Eli Lilly increased drug prices over a dozen times.

Amgen

• So far this year, Amgen has hiked prices more than a dozen times – including on popular drugs Enbrel and Otezla – by more than seven percent.
• A recent House Committee on Oversight report found that Amgen hiked prices of blockbuster drugs Enbrel and Sensipar to meet revenue targets.
• According to ICER, price hikes on the company’s cancer drug Neulasta were not supported by new clinical evidence and accounted for an unnecessary increase in U.S. drug spending of nearly $500 million from 2017-2018.

Pfizer

• Pfizer has already hiked drug prices 99 times this year alone – including a whopping 16.8 percent increase in arthritis drug Solu-Cortef.
• Pfizer increased the price of two of its best-selling drugs, cancer treatment Ibrance and rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz – both by more than five percent.
• Pfizer executives have repeatedly pledged to hike prices on the company’s COVID-19 vaccine when the pandemic wanes.
• Breakout drug Vyndaqel is estimated to “become among the most costly cardiovascular treatments ever,” according to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).
• According to ICER, price hikes on Pfizer’s drug Lyrica were not supported by new clinical evidence and accounted for an unnecessary increase in U.S. drug spending of nearly $700 million from 2017-2018.

GlaxoSmithKline

• GlaxoSmithKline has already raised prices on more than 30 drugs in 2022, including its blockbuster respiratory treatments and its cancer drug Zejula.
• GSK participated in summer price hikes last year, even as Americans battled the economic consequences of the pandemic.
• In 2021, GSK jacked up prices 34 times, including on top-selling respiratory drug Trelegy Ellipta.

AstraZeneca

• The brand-name drug maker has hiked prices on 19 medications this year.
• In 2021, AstraZeneca increased prices on 19 different drugs at the height of the pandemic – including on hyperkalemia drug Lokelma and blockbuster drug Symbicort.
• The company has hiked prices on products in its portfolio three times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AstraZeneca has a long history of hiking prices on Americans struggling to afford their medications:

• AstraZeneca Was One Of Several Companies To Participate In Big Pharma’s Biennial Price Hikes This Summer – despite the unprecedented economic uncertainty facing millions of Americans grappling with the pandemic – by increasing prices on 18 drugs, including on popular cholesterol drug Crestor and blockbuster drug Symbicort. (Tori Marsh, “Live Updates: July 2020 Drug Price Increases,” GoodRx, 8/3/20)
• In Anticipation Of Generic Competition For Its Blockbuster Anti-Ulcer Drug Prilosec, AstraZeneca, “Introduced And Pushed Doctors To Prescribe” A New Drug “Which Was Only Slightly Chemically Different From Prilosec But Had 13 Years Of Patent Protection Left.” The Report Estimates The One-Year Cost Of This Product Hop To Be Almost $2.4 Billion. “The anti-ulcer drug Prilosec was, at one time, the top drug by sales in the United States. In 2000, before its scheduled patent expiration the following year, Prilosec sales reached $4.1 billion (NIHCM Foundation, 2001). In anticipation of generic competition for its blockbuster product, AstraZeneca, Prilosec’s manufacturer, introduced and pushed doctors to prescribe its new anti-ulcer drug, Nexium, which was only slightly chemically different from Prilosec but had 13 years of patent protection left. A lawsuit alleging that AstraZeneca engaged in anticompetitive behavior with Prilosec and Nexium was dismissed in early 2008 when a district court found that AstraZeneca “did not eliminate consumer choice” (Callan, 2015). But antitrust experts have pointed out that the court’s reasoning ignores “the realities of drug markets,” where a prescription for a single-source brand drug removes the option of a generic version (Carrier and Shadowen, 2016).” (Alex Brill, “The Cost of Brand Drug Product Hopping,” Matrix Global Advisors, 9/11/20)
• As AstraZeneca Faced Generic Competition To Its High Cholesterol Drug Crestor, Its “Price Was Increased Several Times Before The Generic Came Out … Including By About 15 Percent Right Before.” “AstraZeneca’s AZN, -0.08% drug Crestor, another of the drugs featured in the report, is a popular but expensive drug that treats high cholesterol. In 2016, when the drug first got a new generic rival, the branded product cost about $300 a month without insurance coverage. The price was increased several times before the generic came out … including by about 15% right before. (AstraZeneca said it could not comment because it was not involved in the study.)” (Emma Court, “Big Pharma Games The System To Make Generic Drugs More Expensive,” MarketWatch, 8/3/18)
• AstraZeneca’s Pricing Strategy Served To Create “A New, Higher Baseline Price When The Generic Hits The Market.” (Tori Marsh, “Prices For Brand Drugs Spike Before A Generic Is Released. Here’s Why.,” GoodRx, 7/27/18)
• After Increasing Drug Prices By As Much As Nine Percent, On A 2018 Earnings Call, Soriot Insisted The Company Was “Sensitive” To Drug Pricing Concerns And Said It Had Raised “Wholesale Prices Earlier [That] Year By ‘Very, Very Modest’ Amounts.” “During an earnings conference call, the AstraZeneca chief executive disclosed the company would not raise prices in the U.S. for the rest of year. Other drug makers have taken the same step in response to pressure from the Trump administration, but he insisted this was ‘our plan … all along’ … He maintained AstraZeneca was sensitive to the problem by raising wholesale prices earlier this year by ‘very, very modest’ amounts, ‘between 1 and 3 percent’ which, he said, was ‘in line with inflation.’” (Ed Silverman, “When Modest Is Actually Excessive: AstraZeneca Spins Its Price Hikes,” STAT News, 7/26/18)

Read more on Q4 earnings from Big Pharma giant Johnson & Johnson HERE.

Read more on Q4 earnings from AbbVie, Sanofi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Novartis HERE.

Learn more about market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and lower prescription drug prices HERE.