Pfizer's lawyers are getting twitchy in their Q4 Earnings Release

Blacklined documents reveal their concerns

photo: thestreet

Once a quarter or annually, large companies make public statements announcing their profitability over that period. In Pfizer’s case it is quarterly and their fourth quarter and full year 2021 report was released on 8 February 2022.

The document begins with what we all know - “2021 was a watershed year for Pfizer. A year in which we set all-time highs in all major areas of focus for Pfizer.

• We reached an estimated 1.4 billion patients with our medicines and vaccines. That’s more than one out of every six people on Earth. Never before has Pfizer’s patient impact been so widereaching.

• We improved our ranking from fourth to second among large biopharma companies in the PatientView Global Survey.

• Lastly, we grew revenues by 92% operationally to $81.3 billion and Adjusted Diluted EPS by 92% operationally to $4.42.”

However, the interesting parts of the document are less obvious. This was pointed out by Kelly Brown. He is an independent investor and self proclaimed accidental and unofficial COVID-19 data analyst. Kelly blacklined Pfizer’s Q4 document with its previous Q3 earning release. For anyone unfamiliar with what blacklining is, it is a legal comparison tool to merge and compare two texts.

I decided to do it myself to check what he said was correct. You can do the same, if you so choose, with the Q3 report and the Q4 report, specifically the risk disclosure sections.

Q3

Q4

The following wording has been added - “or further information regarding the quality of pre-clinical, clinical or safety data, including by audit or inspection”.

Q3

Q4

This time, “of our COVID-19 vaccine or Paxlovid, including challenges driven by misinformation, access, concerns about clinical data integrity and prescriber and pharmacy education;” has been added.

Q3

Q4

A new sentence has been added here - “the possibility that COVID-19 will diminish in severity or prevalence, or disappear entirely;”

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We all know that lawyers love to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into these types of documents to cover themselves, however, it gives us an inkling into what is being discussed and worried about at high levels. It seems therefore, that between Q3 and Q4 the major worries for Pfizer’s lawyers include:

• further information regarding the quality of pre-clinical, clinical or safety data, including by audit or inspection.

• challenges driven by misinformation, access, concerns about clinical data integrity and prescriber and pharmacy education.

• the possibility that COVID-19 will diminish in severity or prevalence, or disappear entirely.