Pfizer Forecasts $54 Billion in Sales This Year as Demand for COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Pill Continues

The Pfizer Inc. logo is seen outside the company's headquarters in New York City on March 2, 2021. Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Pfizer on Tuesday said it expects to see continued demand for its products this year, forecasting $54 billion in combined sales of its COVID-19 vaccine shots and antiviral pills.

The American pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant said it expects to sell $32 billion of its vaccinations and $22 billion of its antiviral COVID-19 treatment pill Paxlovid in 2022 as demand for the products continues.

Those numbers are based on contracts signed or close to being signed as of late January, Pfizer said.

Paxlovid was authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December and is aimed at helping patients who are suffering from “mild-to-moderate” COVID-19 symptoms from becoming so sick that they need to be hospitalized, Pfizer has said.

In its Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2021 Results forecast, Pfizer said increased sales of its COVID-19 treatments will see its revenue boosted to around $100 billion this year.

Overall, Pfizer forecast 2022 sales of $98 billion to $102 billion.

Last year, Pfizer made nearly $37 billion in sales from its COVID-19 vaccine, also known as Comirnaty, making it one of the most lucrative pharmaceutical products in history. Paxlovid sales last year totaled $76 million.

In total for the full year of 2021, Pfizer’s revenue almost doubled to $81.3 billion from $41.6 billion in 2020.

However, the company’s bumper sales faced criticism from campaigners who accused it of “pandemic profiteering” and “ripping off public health systems.”

Tim Bierley, a pharma campaigner at the group Global Justice Now, said: “The development of mRNA vaccines should have revolutionized the global COVID response. But we’ve let Pfizer withhold this essential medical innovation from much of the world, all while ripping off public health systems with an eye-watering mark-up.”

“Right now, there are billions of people who cannot access COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Many are in countries with the facilities needed to manufacture mRNA jabs, but Pfizer’s jealous guarding of its patent stands in the way. And we’re seeing thousands of preventable deaths each day as a result.”

Bierley said Pfizer’s record-high sales were “nothing short of pandemic profiteering” and that the company was now “richer than most countries” while calling for the company to suspend its intellectual property and “break vaccine monopolies.”

“It has made more than enough money from this crisis,” Bierley added.

Despite forecasting increased sales next year, Pfizer shares fell more than 4 percent on Tuesday as investors expected the company’s guidance on its 2022 earnings per share to be higher than $6.35 to $6.55, according to Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat.

Pfizer also fell short of Wall Street estimates, which had forecast sales of $33.79 billion for the COVID-19 vaccine and $22.88 billion for Paxlovid, according to Refinitiv data.

Shares of Pfizer were trading at $51.70, down 2.84 percent as of 8:16 GMT.

But Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO, said the company’s prior investments have “paid off” and the company is optimistic about this year.

“In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we committed to use all of the resources and expertise we had at our disposal to help protect populations globally against this deadly virus, as well as to offer treatments to help avoid the worst outcomes when infections do occur,” Bourla said.

“We put billions of dollars of capital on the line in pursuit of those goals, not knowing whether those investments would ever pay off. Now, less than two years since we made that commitment, we are proud to say that we have delivered both the first FDA-authorized vaccine against COVID-19 (with our partner, BioNTech) and the first FDA-authorized oral treatment for COVID-19.”

“These successes have not only made a positive difference in the world, but I believe they have fundamentally changed Pfizer and its culture forever,” Bourla said, adding that he looks forward to the next breakthrough “that could change the world for patients in need.”