PFE Pfizer Inc

By Dave Sebastian and Colin Kellaher 

Pfizer Inc. said Ian Read, its executive chairman, will retire at the end of the year, with Chief Executive Albert Bourla set to assume the additional post on Jan. 1.

Shares of Pfizer rose 1.5% to $36.32 Friday, building on gains earlier in the day from the company's positive top-line results from a second Phase 3 pivotal study of its atopic dermatitis drug.

Mr. Read, who joined Pfizer in 1978 as an operational auditor, has been chairman since 2011 and served as CEO of the drugmaker from 2010 to 2018. Mr. Bourla, who joined Pfizer's animal-health division in 1993, succeeded Mr. Read as chief executive earlier this year.

The handoff from one long-running Pfizer executive to another would provide a measure of continuity at a company that has weathered losing billions of dollars in sales in the past several years as cholesterol drug Lipitor and other big-selling products faced lower-cost generic rivals.

Mr. Bourla was the company's chief operating officer before taking up the CEO position. He also served as group president of Pfizer Innovative Health and led the company's other business units.

Pfizer struck a string of deals under Mr. Bourla's watch. In his nearly nine months at the helm, Mr. Bourla has moved to refocus the company toward patent-protected drugs and vaccines with the potential for significant sales growth, and away from more diversified but slower growth.

Pfizer in July agreed to merge its off-patent drugs business with the generic drugmaker Mylan NV, creating a global seller of lower-priced medicines.

The company also formed a consumer health-care venture with GlaxoSmithKline PLC, a transaction that closed Aug. 1. Pfizer in late July cut its full-year sales and earnings guidance to reflect the joint venture's formation and the acquisitions of Therachon Holding AG and Array BioPharma Inc., which it bought for $10.6 billion.

One drug Pfizer is working on is oral Janus kinase 1 inhibitor abrocitinib to treat atopic dermatitis, a chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the skin, itching, the formation of papules and oozing or crusting sores. It affects 10% of adults and 20% of children worldwide, Pfizer said.

Its second monotherapy trial showed by week 12 the percentage of patients achieving the main goals of the study was statistically higher than placebo. The company also said a statistically significant number of patients achieved a reduction in itching by week two.

Pfizer said the co-primary study endpoints were the proportion of patients who achieved clear or almost clear skin; and the proportion of patients who achieved at least a 75% or greater change from baseline in their Eczema Area and Severity Index score.

--Chris Wack contributed to this article.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 27, 2019 13:01 ET (17:01 GMT)

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