Health and Healthcare

Pfizer Sinks Despite Winning FDA Approval

Chris Lange

Published: February 24, 2016 12:45 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:46 pm

The markets took a downward turn in Wednesday’s trading session, and despite Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) winning an U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval the stock went with the markets. The company announced that the FDA approved Xeljanz XR (tofacitinib citrate) extended-release tablets for the once-daily treatment of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients who have had an inadequate response or intolerance to methotrexate.

Xeljanz XR is the first and only oral RA treatment in its class, known as Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors. It is approved in more than 45 countries around the world for the treatment of moderate to severe RA as a second-line therapy after failure of one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

RA is a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disease that causes a range of symptoms, including pain and swelling in the joints, particularly those in the hands, feet and knees.

Michael Corbo, Category Development Lead, Inflammation & Immunology, Pfizer Global Innovative Pharmaceuticals Business, commented:

Pfizer continues to be an innovator in inflammation and immunology. The introduction of the first and only once-daily oral JAK inhibitor for RA, Xeljanz XR, builds upon Pfizer’s tradition of developing patient-centered therapies.

So far in 2016, Pfizer has underperformed the broad markets, with the stock down over 6% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is down nearly 10%.

Shares of Pfizer were trading down 0.7% at $29.76 on Wednesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $39.13 and a 52-week trading range of $28.25 to $36.46.