Pfizer’s COVID product sales to top $50 billion in 2022, investors want more
Pfizer’s COVID product sales to top $50 bln this year, investors want more
February 8, 2022; 6:34 PM EST
Pfizer’s COVID product sales to top $50 bln this year, investors want more
February 8, 2022; 6:34 PM EST
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) said on Tuesday it expects 2022 sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral pill to top $54 billion, but that fell short of lofty Wall Street estimates and its shares were off about 3%.
Still, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said final sales for its oral COVID-19 antiviral, Paxlovid, could be “way bigger” than what Pfizer has forecast since its current outlook only included contracts that have been or are close to being signed.
Pfizer currently expects $22 billion in 2022 sales of the treatment, compared with Wall Street estimates of $22.88 billion.
“Clearly, this is only a fraction of the 120 million treatments that we are right now preparing to manufacture” this year, Bourla told analysts on a conference call.
The company is selling 20 million courses of Paxlovid to the United States at around $530 a course, but Bourla said that was a special price because of the size of the order.
The price for most high income countries, he said, would be more or less in line with the price of Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) rival treatment molnupiravir, which the U.S. government bought for around $700 a course.
Pfizer executives said the company is in active discussions with over 100 countries about Paxlovid, and has the capacity to top 120 million courses if needed.
For the COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE , the U.S. drugmaker cautioned that final sales for the year may not top its current forecast of $32 billion, a 13% decline from 2021 levels.
Analysts have forecast sales of $33.79 billion for the vaccine in 2022, according to Refinitiv data.
Overall, Pfizer expects 2022 sales of $98 billion to $102 billion, also below estimates of $105.48 billion.
“Looking forward is not as good as looking back for Pfizer now and that is why (the stock price) is down on a somewhat decent report,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC.
Going forward, “acquisitions are obviously very much in the cards,” said Aamir Malik, Pfizer’s chief business innovation Officer.
Some investors have been looking for Pfizer to use its huge cash infusion from COVID products on deals to drive future growth. read more
Pfizer said it had begun working on a next-generation version of Paxlovid, which is authorized to treat high-risk COVID-19 patients shortly after onset of symptoms.
Paxlovid performed significantly better in its clinical trials than Merck’s rival pill with about 90% efficacy versus 30%.
But Pfizer may still need an improved version of Paxlovid, according to Davinderpreet Mangat, senior analyst at Informa Pharma Intelligence.
“The door is slightly open, still, for COVID antivirals,” Mangat said. “Drugs from other companies may be able to surpass Paxlovid, similar to how Paxlovid surpassed Merck’s drug.”
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Reuters source:
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Accept settingsHide notification onlySettingsWe may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds: