NEW YORK, June 24, 2026, 07:13 EDT
- Pfizer finished Tuesday at $24.72, off 1.44%. Volume hit 81.9 million shares, over double the 50-day average.
- Seagen’s drug sigvotatug vedotin missed the main goal in a Phase 3 lung-cancer study, raising doubts about whether the IB6 target can actually help sort patients in future trials.
- NYSE hadn’t started regular trading as of the dateline. The main session is 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET.
Pfizer traded near flat in early premarket hours on Wednesday after a round of heavy selling that didn’t move the price much. Shares were at $24.76 at 7:07 a.m. EDT, just 0.16% higher than Tuesday’s $24.72 close. The stock is down about 14% from its 52-week high and up around 7% from its low.
Pfizer shares ended down 1.44% on Tuesday. Volume was huge, with 81.9 million shares traded—well above the 50-day average of 36.8 million. Notional turnover at the close was about $2.0 billion, a lot for just one day tied to a clinical update. The S&P 500 dropped 1.44% too, but Pfizer trailed rival drugmakers: Johnson & Johnson gained 3.37%, Eli Lilly added 0.45%.
Sigvotatug vedotin did not hit the statistical bar for overall survival in advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, Pfizer said Monday. The Phase 3 study compared the ADC with docetaxel chemotherapy in patients who had already been treated. The therapy, an antibody-drug conjugate, is designed to take a cell-killing drug to cancer cells.
Biomarker results raised questions. Pfizer reported that IB6 shows up in about 90% of non-small cell lung cancer tumors, but early analysis didn’t find a clear link between IB6 levels and how patients responded. That’s a problem for future trials, since a reliable biomarker gives drugmakers a way to target patients likely to respond and cut risk.
Pfizer said a stronger survival trend showed up in patients who got just one previous line of therapy, making up about two-thirds of the 703 patients in the trial. Pfizer’s chief oncology officer Jeff Legos said, “more work to be done.” Solange Peters, chair of medical oncology and thoracic cancers at Lausanne University Hospital, called the second-line numbers a “clinically meaningful survival benefit.” Pfizer
Pfizer’s ($PFE) sigvotatug vedotin was in focus after high expectations from Wall Street. Leerink’s David Risinger had called the study a “major oncology catalyst” in May, according to STAT. Pfizer bought the drug with its $43 billion Seagen deal in 2023, aiming to boost the company’s oncology presence after the COVID years. STAT
Pfizer isn’t leaving the program. The company is testing sigvotatug vedotin in Phase 3 with Merck’s Keytruda in first-line advanced lung cancer, and it’s looking at combos with PF-08634404, its PD-1/VEGF bispecific. Pfizer named other ADCs in its pipeline, such as fetrastobart vedotin, now in Phase 3 for lung cancer.
Pfizer is telling investors to look at its newer drugs and bought assets over its shrinking COVID business. First-quarter revenue was up 5% to $14.45 billion. Launched and acquired products added 22% on an operational basis. Pfizer kept its 2026 revenue outlook at $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion. Operational revenue strips out currency swings.
Less support is coming from buybacks. Pfizer hasn’t done any share repurchases in 2026 and the outlook doesn’t include any for this year. So trial data, dividends, and forward guidance play a bigger role for the stock. In the first quarter, Pfizer paid out $2.4 billion in cash dividends to shareholders.
Pfizer’s next scheduled update is Aug. 4, with its second-quarter report and a 10:00 a.m. EDT analyst call. The call could see more focus on the Seagen pipeline and Pfizer’s ADC strategy, as well as how much of the 2026 outlook allows for pipeline spending after the recent trial setback.
But the risk is still there. If the Keytruda combo study fails or the signal in second-line weakens once full data are out, Pfizer could find itself relying more on its other cancer and obesity drugs, all while dealing with generics, slower COVID product sales and a CFO change. CFO Dave Denton leaves Aug. 15. Cecile Guegan will be interim CFO.
