PFE bets on Padcev, biosimilars and late-stage pipeline candidates to drive long-term oncology growth amid pressure on legacy drugs.
Pfizer $PFE PFE is one of the world’s leading oncology drugmakers, with a strong presence across breast, genitourinary, thoracic, gastrointestinal and hematologic cancers. The company has built a broad portfolio of marketed cancer therapies and maintains a deep oncology pipeline spanning multiple treatment modalities, including small molecules, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and immuno-oncology biologics.
Oncology sales comprise around 27% of its total revenues. Its oncology revenues grew 7% to $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, driven by drugs like Lorbrena, the Braftovi-Mektovi combination and Padcev, which made up for declining sales of drugs like Ibrance.
Lorbrena sales rose 32% to $305 million. Xtandi recorded alliance revenues of $444 million in the quarter, down 3% year over year. Inlyta revenues were $214 million in the quarter, down 5%.
Braftovi/Mektovi revenues were $174.0 million, up 28% year over year. New drug, Elrexfio, generated sales of $80 million in the quarter, up 32% year over year.
Among the antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs added from the 2023 acquisition of Seagen $SGEN, Padcev rose 39% to $591 million, driven by strong demand trends mainly due to market share gains in first-line metastatic urothelial cancer and launch momentum from the new muscle-invasive bladder cancer indication. Adcetris sales of $190 million declined 13% year over year. Pfizer’s Seagen products recorded an operational growth of 20% in the first quarter.
Pfizer considers Padcev to be a potential growth driver in the oncology segment and plans to invest in this asset. Recently, Padcev + Merck $MRK’s MRK Keytruda was approved by the FDA for treating cisplatin-ineligible patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) in November 2025. Padcev + Keytruda is also under review in the United States for cisplatin-eligible MIBC. The FDA’s decision is expected on Aug. 17, 2026. If approved for cisplatin-eligible MIBC, it will expand Padcev’s indication to patients with MIBC regardless of cisplatin eligibility. If approved, the Padcev+Keytruda regimen has the potential to become the new standard of care for MIBC, regardless of cisplatin eligibility.
Pfizer has also ventured into the oncology biosimilars space and markets six biosimilars for cancer. Its oncology biosimilars contributed $409 million in sales in the first quarter of 2026, up 52% year over year.
Pfizer is also advancing its oncology clinical pipeline across areas such as breast, thoracic, gastrointestinal and blood cancer. Several oncology candidates have entered late-stage development, such as atirmociclib and sigvotatug vedotin. Regulatory application seeking approval of sasanlimab is under review in the EU. By 2030, it expects to have eight or more blockbuster oncology medicines in its portfolio.
Last year, Pfizer entered into a global ex-China in-licensing agreement with China's 3SBio for exclusive rights to PF-08634404, a dual PD-1 and VEGF inhibitor, which it plans to establish as a potential backbone therapy across multiple tumor types. Pfizer plans to start four pivotal studies for PF-08634404 in 2026.
Pfizer is also working on expanding the labels of approved oncology drugs like Padcev, Tuksya and Elrexfio, among others.
Despite competitive pressure on legacy cancer drugs, Pfizer is strengthening its oncology business through fast-growing assets like Padcev, expanding biosimilars, and a broad late-stage pipeline that could support long-term growth.
Pfizer is one of the largest drugmakers of cancer medicines. Other large players in the oncology space are AstraZeneca $AZN AZN, Merck, J&J JNJ and Bristol-Myers.
The Oncology segment comprises around 29% of J&J’s total revenues and 45% of its Innovative Medicine segment sales. Its oncology sales rose 17.8% on an operational basis in the first quarter of 2026, driven by strong market growth and share gains of key products such as Darzalex and prostate cancer drug, Erleada. The sales growth was partially dampened by lower sales of Imbruvica. J&J’s new cancer drugs, Carvykti, Tecvayli, Talvey and Rybrevant/Lazcluze are contributing significantly to top-line growth driven by market share gains.
For AstraZeneca, oncology sales now comprise around 45% of total revenues. Sales in its oncology segment rose 16% at constant exchange rate (CER) in the first quarter of 2026. AstraZeneca’s strong oncology performance was driven by medicines such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo).
Merck’s key oncology medicines are PD-L1 inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounts for around 50% of Merck’s pharmaceutical sales. Keytruda recorded sales of $8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 8% year over year.
Pfizer stock has risen 3.1% so far this year against a decline of 2.3% for the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, Pfizer appears attractive relative to the industry and is trading below its five-year mean. Going by the price/earnings ratio, Pfizer’s shares currently trade at 8.73 forward earnings, significantly lower than 16.70 for the industry as well as the stock’s five-year mean of 9.76.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings per share has risen from $2.98 to $2.99, while that for 2027 has risen from $2.82 to $2.86 over the past 30 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Pfizer has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Quantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI.
While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft $MSFT, Google $GOOGL, Amazon $AMZN, Oracle $ORCL, and even Meta $META and Tesla $TSLA, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.
Senior Stock Strategist Kevin Cook reveals 7 carefully selected stocks poised to dominate the quantum computing landscape in his report, Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power.
Kevin was among the early experts who recognized NVIDIA's enormous potential back in 2016. Now, he has keyed in on what could be "the next big thing" in quantum computing supremacy. Today, you have a rare chance to position your portfolio at the forefront of this opportunity.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
