Pfizer raises Covid-19 vaccine sales forecast to $36bn for 2021
The US drugmaker Pfizer has lifted its 2021 forecast for revenues from its Covid vaccine to $36bn (£26.3bn), and forecast another $29bn sales next year after it started shipping booster jabs and shots for children.
The Covid jab, called Comirnaty and developed with Germany’s BioNTech, contributed $13bn of revenues in the three months to 30 September. That was more than half of Pfizer’s total revenues of $24bn in the quarter, which rose 134% from a year earlier. In the first six months of the year, Corminaty revenues were $11.3bn.
Pfizer, which shares profits on the Covid vaccine evenly with BioNTech, raised its 2021 forecast for Corminaty sales from $33.5bn in July, as it expects to deliver 2.3bn doses this year. Together with BioNTech, it continues to expect to manufacture 3bn doses by the end of December, although not all of them will be delivered by then. For next year, it has so far agreed contracts for 1.7bn doses.
The jab was the first to gain approval for emergency use in the US for adults last year, and more recently for children and booster shots.
Together with the US biotech firm Moderna, Pfizer accounts for the lion’s share of the pharma industry’s global revenues from Covid vaccines.
Many western countries including the US, UK and Germany have started giving third booster shots to elderly and vulnerable people. However, booster jabs are controversial because in lowincome countries only 3.7% of people have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. About 7.1bn doses have been administered globally, and nearly half the world’s population has received at least one jab.
The jump in Covid vaccine revenues prompted Pfizer to lift its overall sales and earnings predictions. It now expects to make total revenues of up to $82bn this year, and underlying earnings a share of $4.13 to $4.18, compared with its previous forecast of $3.95 to $4.05.
Pfizer faced fresh criticism from groups such as Amnesty International. The campaign group Global Justice Now accused Pfizer of “making a killing” out of “the most lucrative medicine ever produced,” while “most of the world has been locked out of this vaccine”.
Its director, Nick Dearden, said: “Just 1% of Pfizer’s supplies have been sold to the international distribution mechanism Covax, as the company has put sales of third and fourth doses in wealthy markets ahead of selling doses to where they’re most needed. This will undoubtedly prolong the pandemic.”
Responding to criticism, Pfizer’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, said poorer countries and organisations such as Covax needed to place orders, at a heavily discounted price, adding: “We remain on track to achieve our goal of delivering at least 2bn doses to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2022 – at least 1bn to be delivered this year and 1bn next year.”
Bourla made a bold promise in June, saying that should the need arise for a new Covid vaccine, the company could develop one within 100 days.
He was referring to the possible emergence of an “escape variant” – a strain of Sars-CoV-2 that evades the immunity provided by current vaccines and previous infections.
Other companies, such as Moderna and AstraZeneca, are also preparing for the emergence of new strains by updating their current vaccines to match known variants such as delta, and testing them on these strains. These dress rehearsals are designed to even out kinks in the processes so the firms can move faster if an “escape variant” emerges for which current jabs do not work, Nature reported recently.