Kodiak, Celldex, Rapport and Vaxcyte Face Key Fall Clinical Readouts

Pfizer is reallocating resources toward newer and acquired medicines, vaccines and oncology products while reducing its reliance on COVID-19 products, according to chief international commercial officer and executive vice president Alexandre de Germay. COVID-related revenue is projected to fall from about $11 billion in 2024 to approximately $6.7 billion in 2025 and $4 billion in 2026. New and newly acquired products in Pfizer's international business generated about $500 million in 2023 and have since risen to $4 billion, while at the global level new acquired and launched products produced $3.2 billion in the second quarter, up 18% after 22% growth in the first quarter. De Germay said Pfizer has cut operating expenses, halted less productive launches and clinical studies, and tripled international sales-force productivity over three years. Pfizer has 31 Phase III clinical studies underway, including three thoracic cancer candidates, and its obesity portfolio includes bempaglutide in Phase III and a GLP-1 and amylin combination expected to read out by year-end.

Beijing has unveiled a five-year plan aimed at making China a global leader in drug innovation, with a target of developing 25% of the world's first-in-class drugs by 2030. The plan, issued in a joint notice from multiple government ministries, lays out 25 priority tasks spanning innovation capacity, research and technology, including expanded R&D, the use of AI and quantum computing in drug discovery, and the building of pharmaceutical ecosystems beyond pipelines. The government aims for the industry to reach 3.5tn yuan, or $520bn, in annual revenue by 2030, with 50 companies exceeding $1.5bn in annual revenue, and at least five Chinese drugs achieving global annual sales above $1bn. The notice singled out next-generation therapies including antibody-drug conjugates, cell and gene therapies, and CAR-T, along with vaccines and newer platforms such as mRNA, and included a section on industrialising traditional Chinese medicine. Citi analysts said the plan signals a shift from scale-driven growth toward innovation-driven, quality-oriented development, with a broad whole-value-chain policy push covering innovative drugs, medical devices, AI-driven drug discovery, and CDMO/CRO. The biomedical plan was released alongside counterparts for other strategic sectors, including integrated circuits, aerospace, the low-altitude economy, new energy storage and intelligent robotics.