PFE Pfizer Inc

Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter thanks to last year's acquisition of Hospira Inc. and strong sales of new drugs, but the pharmaceutical giant offered soft guidance for 2016.

Pfizer, which struck a $155 billion deal in November to combine with Allergan PLC, said it expects to earn $2.20 to $2.30 a share this year, excluding special items. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast $2.36 a share in earnings.

The company forecast $49 billion to $51 billion in revenue, while analysts were expecting $52.49 billion in revenue. Pfizer said it expects heightened competition from generic drugs to cut $2.3 billion from full-year revenue, while a stronger U.S. dollar is expected to shave another $2.3 billion from the top line.

The guidance excludes any impact from its inversion deal with Allergan, which would move Pfizer's headquarters to Ireland, where the tax rate is lower. The deal would also create the world's biggest drugmaker by sales. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2016.

The disappointing guidance comes as Pfizer reported a return to core revenue growth for the first time since it began to lose exclusivity for many of its drugs. Pfizer's stand-alone revenues grew 5% in the fourth quarter and 3% for the full-year.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, new drugs such as Prevnar pneumonia vaccines, cancer drug Ibrance and blood-thinner Eliquis helped drive a 15% increase in innovative product sales, or a 22% increase when backing out the impact of foreign exchange rates.

In September, Pfizer bought Hospira Inc. in a $16 billion deal that has made the company a leading player in the growing market for lower-priced versions of costly biotech drugs. Pfizer, like many of its peers, has faced a string of patent expirations over recent years as well as growing generic competition for former blockbusters like cholesterol fighter Lipitor and pain pill Celebrex.

Sales slipped 2.2% in the established drug business, but were up 5% excluding currency impacts, mostly due to the inclusion of Hospira's results. That offset the impact of losing exclusivity for Celebrex in the U.S. and Lyrica in certain developed Europe markets.

In all, Pfizer reported a profit of $613 million, or 10 cents a share, down from $1.23 billion, or 19 cents a share a year earlier.

The quarter included several special items, including a $878 million foreign currency loss related to Venezuela and a $491 million pension settlement charge.

Excluding those and other special items, adjusted earnings were 53 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast adjusted earnings of 52 cents a share.

Revenue rose 7.1% to $14.05 billion. Analysts had forecast $13.56 billion in revenue.

Shares of Pfizer declined 0.5% premarket to $30.02.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2016 08:05 ET (13:05 GMT)

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