Summary
Pfizer has proven itself to be a pioneer of therapeutics for HIV infection, autoimmune, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases as well as hematological and oncological ailments.
Pfizer had a good second quarter, with a 4% increase in sales revenue.
Its portfolio is currently lacking therapeutics for hepatic diseases, and its reluctance to clinically develop PF-03491390 (now called emricasan) may have been a scientific mishap.
Pfizer is now playing catch up with its NASH franchise pipeline with anti-NASH drug candidates, an acetyl-CoA carboxylase inhibitor and a ketohexokinase inhibitor, currently in Phase 2a trials.
I analyze its current therapeutic approach in using the aforementioned metabolism modulators to suppress this complex, heterogenous, multi-factorial, progressive chronic non-alcoholic steatohepatitis also known as NASH.
Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will - Nelson Mandela
Investment Thesis
Pfizer Inc. (PFE), a large-cap ($251B) multi-billion global biopharmaceutical company, gained pharmaceutical celebrity status when sildenafil citrate marketed globally as Viagra was approved in 1998. Obviously, Pfizer is more than a man-helper since it is also a heart-restorer with the development of the blockbuster cardiovascular drug, Lipitor. Pfizer’s therapeutic portfolio comprises drugs/candidates for several diseases, including HIV/AIDS, oncology, immunology, autoimmunity. Pfizer is also developing small drug molecules targeting the fibrotic disease, NASH (focus of this article).
In 2005, Pfizer acquired Idun Pharmaceuticals and its four drug assets, including IDN-6556. For reasons that I discuss later in the article, Pfizer discontinued development of IDN-6556 in 2008. In 2010, IDN-6556 was reacquired by Dr. Steve Mento, the CEO of Conatus Pharmaceuticals (CNAT) and renamed emricasan.
