After Pfizer (PFE) posted a third quarter earnings beat and raised its full-year guidance, CEO Albert Bourla joins Market Domination to discuss the "exceptional quarter."

Bourla notes that Pfizer in addition to earnings and revenue, the company's COVID and non-COVID businesses also topped expectations. He tells Yahoo Finance, "When you have a quarter like that, really you feel that you are in a good way of executing what you said you will do."

While there have been questions about the sustainability of Pfizer's COVID business, Bourla explains, "It's clear to me that the COVID business has stabilized into the new levels that will be the sustainable levels for the future. We are having already a second year of repetition."

As Pfizer continues its proxy battle with activist investor Starboard Value, Bourla says that he agrees with some of the points made, like poor shareholder returns. However, he disagrees with "a lot" of other points, like spending and acquisitions, and calls the Pfizer-BioNTech (BNTX) deal "transformational."

He notes that Starboard Value CEO Jeff Smith has said that there are many changes that need to be made in the company. However, he believes that he has already addressed the main issues:

"I changed everything 12 months ago. Let me repeat what we did as changes. We changed our commercial model with new leaders and US international separated. We have delivered three consecutive quarters of growth... We announced a $4 billion cut in SI&A (selling, informational, and administrative) and OpEx (operational expenditures)."

Bourla also points to leadership changes and new board members as initiatives to create new shareholder value. He argues that these efforts have been working and has led the company to perform "very well."

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl