Pfizer CEO plans to meet activist investor Starboard, FT reports

(Reuters) -Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla plans to meet key executives of activist hedge fund Starboard Value next week, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Bourla and Shantanu Narayen, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)’s lead independent director and Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) CEO, will hold talks with Starboard chief executive Jeff Smith and Patrick Sullivan, who runs its healthcare investments, the report said.

Reuters reported on Sunday, citing sources, that Starboard Value had taken a stake of about $1 billion in Pfizer and wanted the drugmaker to make changes to turn its performance around.

Starboard approached Ian Read, a former Pfizer CEO, and Frank D’Amelio, who served as CFO until 2021, who expressed interest in helping the activist investor, sources told Reuters.

Pfizer declined to comment, while Starboard Value did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

CEO Bourla, who took the helm in 2019, has been trying to turnaround Pfizer after its slump from pandemic-era highs, hurt by shrinking sales of its COVID products.

Bourla spent some $70 billion since 2020 on acquisitions, including the $43 billion buyout of Seagen last year, while launching cost-saving initiatives.

The drugmaker has struggled to find a product that would make up for the lost revenue from its COVID vaccine and pill.

It had a weaker-than-expected launch of its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine and disappointing clinical data from an obesity pill it was developing.

Starboard’s exact recommendations for Pfizer could not immediately be ascertained, the FT report added.