Global sales of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine and treatment drove the drug maker into new territory in the first quarter of 2022 as profit grew 61 percent on the back of a 77 percent overall revenue leap.
The New York-based Pfizer Inc. reported Tuesday the coronavirus vaccine Comirnaty delivered more than $13 billion in sales while the treatment Paxlovid added another $1.5 billion as company revenue swelled 77 percent.
AP reports Pfizer also revised its 2022 earnings forecast to reflect an accounting policy change. It now expects adjusted earnings of $6.25 to $6.45 per share.
Producers of the Pfizer vaccine, BioNTech, last year stood amongst the first manufacturers to push for clearance to vaccinate children five and older as the company announced it was ready to begin making smaller doses for children younger than 12.
While AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson executives pledged to Congress back in 2020 not to profit off the vaccines, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Barron’s it is “radical” to suggest that billion-dollar pharmaceutical corporations forgo profits during the coronavirus crisis.
“I think it’s very wrong. You need to be very fanatic and radical to say something like that right now,” Bourla said of those suggesting vaccines not be administered for profit.
“Who is finding the solution? The private sector found the solution for diagnostics, and the private sector found the solution for therapeutics and is along [the] way to find more solutions for therapeutics and vaccines. So how can you say something like that? Doesn’t make sense.”