31 January 2019 - Deborah Wilkes
Worldwide sales at Pfizer's Consumer Healthcare division increased by 5% on an operational basis in the fourth quarter of 2018, thanks to strong growth outside the US.
US-based Pfizer said Consumer Healthcare's International sales had risen by 9% on an operational basis to USD455 million, accounting for 46.7% of worldwide sales. A negative currency effect meant International sales only increased by 4% as reported.
Within the International business, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare's largest region was Emerging Markets, with sales up by 8% on an operational basis to USD228 million.
Sales in Developed Europe were up by 10% on an operational basis to USD139 million.
In the Developed Rest of World region, sales grew by 9% to USD87 million.
Meanwhile, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare's sales in its home market of the US were up by 1% to USD520 million.
The US generated 53.4% of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare's worldwide sales, which increased by 5% on an operational basis to USD974 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. A negative currency effect meant sales as reported were only up by 3%.
Pfizer does not release profit figures for the Consumer Healthcare business.
Consumer Healthcare accounted for 7.0% of Pfizer's total worldwide sales in the fourth quarter of 2018, which were up by 5% on an operational basis to USD14.0 billion. A negative currency effect meant sales as reported were up by 2%.
Performance in the full year
For the whole of 2018, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare's sales increased by 3% on an operational basis to USD3.61 billion. Sales as reported were up by 4%.
The performance was an improvement on 2017 when worldwide sales at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare were up by 2% on an operational basis.
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare is set to become part of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare during the second half of 2019.
GSK and Pfizer announced on 19 December 2018 that they had agreed to combine their consumer healthcare businesses into a "world-leading" joint venture with combined annual sales of around GBP9.8 billion (USD12.7 billion) (click here to read the News story).
Emma Walmsley, GSK's chief executive officer, said the transaction would create a new world-leading Consumer Healthcare company.
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