00:00 Josh Lipton
Pfizer announcing today that it is halting a late stage trial of its GLP-1 pill candidate. And Yahoo! Finance’s very own Angelina Kamlani joins us now with the latest, Ange.
00:16 Anjalee Khemlani
Josh, that’s right. We heard from Pfizer today that it is choosing to halt its phase three trial of danuglipron, that is its once daily oral pill that was supposed to be a really good competitor in the market. They said that they stopped it because one of the clinical trial participants had a liver injury and after getting off the pill was able to recover. So that is where things stand. This is, you know, really a bumpy ride for Pfizer and the end to it essentially for this one molecule. We’ll have to see what the company decides to do. If you take a look at the stock, though, it didn’t really move much on the news today, Wall Street seemed to kind of shrug it off, and it seems that analysts are looking at maybe the company looking inwardly through its pipeline or externally to acquire something to get it into the obesity space. Uh we got Akash Tewari from Jefferies saying that we’re removing danuglipron from our model and lowering the price target for Pfizer as a result from $34 to $32, and we view this as another frustrating hit to management’s credibility. The company has really been under the watch of investors for some time, and you can see on your screen the struggle that it had to really enter this obesity space already, ending one candidate earlier on in June 23rd because of similar liver issues, and then looking at twice daily danuglipron having to scrap that, then advancing once daily and now scrapping that as well. That leaves Eli Lilly as the only contender in the marketplace, uh, for a pill, as well as, of course, already a market leader with the injectables. So, really hot obesity space that Pfizer is missing out on, and investors are looking at what it can do to really get the next blockbuster out of its pipeline. I guess we’ll have to wait till earnings at the end of the month to hear more about that.
03:22 Josh Lipton
Ange, healthcare is such a big business, but if you get it right, you make a lot of money. Johnson & Johnson reports earnings tomorrow. Any wisdom, what to expect?
03:35 Anjalee Khemlani
Yeah, we’re definitely keeping an eye on a few things for Johnson & Johnson. Of course, it is a maker of medical devices, which we know have been hit by the tariffs as well as a pharmaceutical manufacturing, which has been, uh, looked at as having some sort of special tariffs that we’ve heard from President Trump. So, we’re looking on any kind of impact from those conversations, as well as broader tariff impact on guidance. We’ve seen a couple of companies pull, and we’ll see if Johnson & Johnson does so as well. We do know the company has committed to $55 billion in US manufacturing. So we’ll have to see how that all shakes out when the company, uh, lets us know tomorrow morning.
04:33 Josh Lipton
Ange, thank you. Appreciate it.