At a recent company town hall here, Pfizer ’s cancer-business chief looked over some 100 scientists, marketers and other staffers who had just joined the giant drugmaker through a $43 billion acquisition and asked them to reach below their chairs.
Ten of the new Pfizer employees in the large conference room pulled out Ray-Ban sunglasses that had been taped under their seats and put them on, as colleagues in the crowd laughed. “The future is bright for everyone in oncology,” said Chris Boshoff, Pfizer’s chief oncology officer, donning his own pair of the black Wayfarers.
Pfizer is counting on it. The drugmaker is betting much of its future on cancer drugs, wagering they can ring up billions of dollars in new sales and turn around a company struggling with falling Covid-19 revenue and the lower-priced competition that looms for some big-selling products.