“We believe these investments will drive high single-digit growth after the loss of exclusivity period in 2028.”

In context

“Albert Bourla (Chairman & Chief Executive Officer): Yes. On COVID, of course we can ask the commercial leaders and finance to comment on that, but let me give you a very high-level view. This year we have seen a very low COVID season. For all seasonal respiratory diseases, we see variability from year to year. Some years the flu is more acute and more widespread, and some years it is not. The same is true for RSV. The reason we don't see big swings in sales for our products when that happens is because most are vaccines, and vaccines tend to be less tied to short-term infection rates. Vaccine demand is based on perceived risk: people who are committed to vaccination or feel at risk will continue to get vaccinated whether the season is high or low. Clearly a high season drives more people to vaccinate, but the variation is small. By contrast, Paxlovid is directly correlated with infection rates: if someone is not infected, they do not need Paxlovid, and that is what we are seeing now. So COVID revenues should be considered as vaccines plus Paxlovid. The vaccine revenues will be more stable regardless of infection-rate fluctuations, while Paxlovid will move up and down with the season. Can we predict next year? It could be very high or very low; it is hard to predict. What I want to emphasize is that this year, with the lowest infection levels we could imagine when we set our goals, we were still able to offset every COVID shortfall through strong performance across the rest of the business. That was the important takeaway. On business development, at a high level, Terence earlier asked about the remaining $7 billion. Pfizer has already placed many of its business development bets and we are executing on them. Since returning to normal after the peak COVID years, our business development investments have outpaced others. A large share of these investments — amounting to more than $80 billion — has been placed into three transactions, and all three are performing very well. We continue to execute: with Seagen we are further developing the pipeline to realize greater value; with NURTEC we are developing new indications to expand its value; and with Metsera we are moving at very high speed. As Chris said, two studies are fully enrolled and another is nearly fully enrolled. With the remaining $6 to $7 billion, we will be strategic and you should expect bolt-on opportunities of the size of those types of investments. We are looking at areas where we can make a difference: oncology, immuno-inflammation, primary care including obesity, and vaccines, though there are fewer external vaccine opportunities for business development. We believe these investments will drive high single-digit growth after the loss of exclusivity period in 2028. With that, I think it's time to close the call. I want to again emphasize that I'm very pleased with what we achieved. We have demonstrated strong operational execution over the past three years: reducing our cost base while continuing to perform and even outperform on top-line results. You will see significant R&D progress, and as Chris highlighted, meaningful catalysts are coming in the next 12 months. We remain optimistic about their success. I want to thank my Pfizer colleagues for their dedication, and I wish you all a great day. Thank you.”