U.S. drugmaker earnings heat up this week with spotlight on vaccine news

Several major U.S. drugmakers will report second-quarter results this week, with investors eager for fresh details from Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Merck & Co (MRK.N) and others on their efforts to develop vaccines and therapies against the novel coronavirus. The supply, pricing and profitability for these potential products also will be hot topics for companies reporting this week, including Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N), which is developing an antibody treatment for the still rapidly-spreading disease. Earnings reports are also due from British drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L) and AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) and France’s Sanofi (SASY.PA), which are working on vaccines in various stages of development.

Wall Street also will be looking for any signs of weakness in the companies’ big-selling products as the virus runs rampant in many U.S. states, which may stop patients with other conditions from going to hospitals or doctors due to infection fears, as was seen earlier in the U.S. outbreak. While shares of small vaccine developers have skyrocketed this year over optimism that their success could help end the pandemic, the picture has been more mixed for large U.S. drugmakers. Globally, drugmakers are expected to increase second-quarter earnings per share by 2%, after they rose 17% in the first quarter, according to Cowen & Co. Pfizer. .

Investors will be looking for more details on the timing of the vaccine’s development after the U.S. government agreed last week to pay nearly $2 billion to buy enough of it to inoculate 50 million people if it proves to be safe and effective. Gilead’s antiviral treatment, remdesivir, has become a key weapon for many countries after the intravenously administered medicine helped shorten hospital recovery times in a U.S. trial. But the drug’s supply has been an issue with cases spiking in much of the United States and elsewhere. Some other countries have voiced concerns over its availability after the U.S. government said in June it had secured nearly all supplies over the next three months.

Source: Reuters