Five weeks after telling investors to expect a revenue decline in 2026, Pfizer has found a quick funding fix, selling off its stake in GSK’s ViiV Healthcare.
The New York powerhouse has agreed to surrender its 11.7% interest in the HIV-focused company for $1.875 billion. Under terms of the agreement, Shionogi will pick up Pfizer’s shares for $2.125 billion, with GSK gaining a special dividend of $250 million.
The deal allows majority owner GSK to retain its 78.3% interest in ViiV, while Osaka, Japan-based Shionogi will boost its stake in ViiV from 10% to 21.7%. The companies expect to close the deal in the first quarter of this year.
“This agreement simplifies ViiV’s shareholder structure and we look forward to continuing our highly successful collaboration with Shionogi to advance ViiV’s pipeline and portfolio of long-acting injectable HIV treatment and prevention medicines,” ViiV Chairman David Redfern said in a release.
Also as part of the deal, Shionogi will retain its one director position on the ViiV board, currently occupied by John Keller, Ph.D., who has been in place since Shionogi gained a stake in ViiV in 2012.
“Shionogi is dedicated to addressing major infectious diseases, with HIV being one of our most important focus areas, as reflected by our role in the discovery of the innovative integrase inhibitors dolutegravir and cabotegravir,” Keller, also the chief of R&D at Shionogi, added in the release.
GSK and Pfizer launched ViiV in 2009 to discover new medicines to combat HIV and provide better resources for people with AIDS. At the time, GSK took an 85% stake in ViiV, with Pfizer holding the other 15%. In 2012, ViiV acquired Shionogi’s HIV portfolio in exchange for royalty committments and a 10% stake in the company.
In 2024, GSK reported sales of its HIV treatments at 7.1 billion pounds sterling ($9.1 billion), trailing its primary rival in the market, Gilead Sciences, which reported HIV portfolio sales of $19.6 billion. In 2008, the year before ViiV was established, GSK's HIV products generated sales of $1.6 billion pounds ($2.1 billion).
Last month, Pfizer projected its 2026 revenue would come in at between $59.5 billion and $62.5 billion. The $61 billion midpoint of the projection would be a decline from its 2024 sales of $63.6 billion and its projected 2025 revenue of $62 billion.
Built into the company’s 2026 guidance is a $1.5 billion decline in sales of its COVID products and a $1.5 billion hit from the loss of exclusivity (LOE) of certain other drugs. With those LOEs escalating in the coming years—to $3 billion-plus in 2027 and $6 billion-plus in 2028—Pfizer said it doesn’t expect to see growth until 2029.