After obtaining generous profits from its vaccine against covid-19, the American laboratory Pfizer plans to sell US$ 32,000 million of that drug this year and US$ 22,000 million for its treatment against coronavirus.
The strong demand for products linked to the pandemic should allow the group to reach the 100 billion dollars in billing.
“2021 has been a pivotal year for Pfizer”commented its executive director, Albert Bourla, in a message published on the occasion of the publication of the company’s results.
The group produced more than 3 billion doses of the vaccine, developed in partnership with German biotech BioNTech, under the Comirnaty name, selling $36.8 billion in total in 2021.
the compound captured 70% of the market in the United States and the European Union, Bourla said.
Javier TORRES / AFP
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the most administered in Uruguay
Consequently, Pfizer’s turnover rebounded 95% to US$81.3 billion and its net profit more than doubled to US$22 billion.
Pfizer, which expected to sell only about $15 billion of its vaccine at the start of 2021 before raising its forecast several times, expects to produce 4 billion additional doses this year.
In January the group announced the launch of a clinical trial to test a version of the vaccine specifically targeting the omicron variant.
He also recently applied for emergency clearance in the United States of his vaccine for children six months to 4 yearswhich would become the first available for this age group.
Its financial director, however, anticipated that the sales forecasts for the vaccine should not increase significantly during the year, as happened in 2021 “when the vaccine reached the market and when even few people had received the doses”.
120 million pills
As for his anticovid pill, a treatment marketed under the name Paxlovid and authorized at the end of December in the United States and in about 40 countriesPfizer has already sold the equivalent of 72 million dollars in 2021 and expects to produce 120 million doses throughout this year.
The forecasts are based on the contracts at the end of January and the income for this drug could increase according to the conversations with the governments and their possible willingness to have reserves against future pandemics, the financial director stressed.
Pfizer also works in a second treatment against covid-19 that could counteract the risk of resistance to Paxlovid without necessarily having to combine it with another drug, ritonavir. The first clinical trials will begin in the second semester.
“Our scientists continue to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 virus and believe it is unlikely to be completely eradicated in the foreseeable future,” Bourla said.
“We now have the tools, in the form of vaccines and treatments, that we believe will help us not only better manage the pandemic but also get us into an endemic phase,” he added.
While the group’s earnings in 2021 were higher than expected by analysts, its turnover and its forecasts have disappointed a little and its stock fell on the New York Stock Exchange.
Pfizer expects a total turnover of between 98 and 102 billion dollars for this year and a adjusted earnings per share between $6.35 and $6.55.
For the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, the group’s turnover figure was more than double the amount reachedr 23.8 billion dollars. But without sales of the vaccine (US$ 12.5 billion) and the anticovid treatment, they fell 2%. For that period, Pfizer made a profit of US$3.4 billion.
AFP
