Citigroup Reports on Pfizer

Citigroup commented on Pfizer PFE in a report released Monday. Citigroup was neutral in its assessment of the company. Citigroup writes, "PFE presented in-line data from its ORAL Sync tofacitinib (TOFA) Ph-III trial in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), & a Ph-II Lipitor combination study at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) meeting in London on Friday. Tofacitinib is an oral twice-daily, first-in-class JAK-3 inhibitor. Overall, efficacy & safety appear in-line with the results released from the 1st ORAL Solo trial at American College of Rheumatology (ACR) in Nov 2010 (see our note here). Further, atorvastatin (& likely any statin) could manage potential increases in bad cholesterol (low density lipoprotein or LDL) caused by TOFA, and may even incur a benefit on disease activity. When EULAR abstracts were first released, the major concern was a death caused by acute heart failure. This concern seems unfounded as the death was deemed unrelated to the study drug. PFE has reported (mostly) positive top-line results for the remaining three ORAL trials, whose data is expected to be presented at the ACR meeting in Chicago on Nov 4-9. We expect PFE to complete the TOFA US filing in the later part of 2H11. PFE appears well positioned to gain share in a ~$30B global disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD)market. We model 2015E global TOFA sales of >$800M." Citigroup currently has a Hold rating on Pfizer and a target price of $23. Shares of Pfizer closed at $20.93 on Friday, up $0.03 on the day.