Pfizer 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. Investors will be keen to know how its oncology segment performed in the second quarter when the company announces results on Aug. 4.
Pfizer’s oncology sales in the second quarter are expected to have been driven by higher sales of key drugs like Padcev, Lorbrena and the Braftovi-Mektovi combination, which should make up for declining sales of drugs like Ibrance and Adcetris. Sales of the new drug, Elrexfio, are also likely to have risen in the quarter.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Padcev is $661 million, while that for Ibrance is $1.05 billion.
Pfizer has ventured into the oncology biosimilars space and markets six biosimilars for cancer. Its oncology biosimilars are expected to have made a significant contribution to sales growth in the second quarter of 2026, similar to the past few quarters.
Pfizer is also likely to provide updates on its key oncology candidates on the second-quarter conference call. Several oncology candidates have entered late-stage development, such as atirmociclib and sigvotatug vedotin. A regulatory application seeking approval of sasanlimab is also under review in the EU.
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. An update on PF-08634404 is expected on the second-quarter conference call.
Competition in the Oncology Space
Pfizer is one of the largest drugmakers of cancer medicines. Other large players in the oncology space are AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK, J&J JNJ and Bristol-Myers.
For J&J, the Oncology segment comprises around 29% of 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 cancer products such as Darzalex and 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.
PFE’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Pfizer’s stock has risen 1.6% so far this year compared with an increase of 12.1% for the industry.
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 8.42 forward earnings, significantly lower than 18.49 for the industry as well as the stock’s five-year mean of 9.37.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings has declined from $2.99 per share to $2.96 per share, while that for 2027 has been stable at $2.86 per share over the past 60 days.
Pfizer has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).