(Reuters) – Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla plans to meet with key executives from activist hedge fund Starboard Value next week, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Bourla and Shantanu Narayen, Pfizer’s lead independent director and CEO of Adobe Systems, will hold discussions with Starboard CEO Jeff Smith and Patrick Sullivan, who manages 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 improve its performance.
Starboard approached Ian Read, a former Pfizer CEO, and Frank D’Amelio, who was 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 over in 2019, has been trying to turn Pfizer around after the post-pandemic slump, which was hit by declining sales of its COVID products.
Bourla has spent about $70 billion on acquisitions since 2020, including last year’s $43 billion acquisition of Seagen, while launching cost-cutting initiatives.
The drugmaker has struggled to find a product that would make up for lost revenue from its COVID vaccine and pill.
The company 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 determined, the FT report said.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
