Pfizer lifts revenue outlook as Covid jab price rise boosts sales

Pfizer raised its sales forecast for its Covid-19 vaccine by $2bn to $34bn on Tuesday, as higher prices offset a slowdown in demand outside the US.

The US drugmaker said strong sales of its bivalent booster, which targets the Omicron variant’s dominant strain, and some of its other drugs helped it offset damage from a strong dollar.

The company maintained its full-year forecast of $22bn for sales of its Covid antiviral pill Paxlovid, as it posted third-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations and soothed concerns around weaker demand for Covid products.

Pfizer shares were up 2.7 per cent to $47.80 just after midday in New York trading Tuesday.

“With regard to our Covid-19 products, while their sales may fall from our expected 2022 levels we believe our Covid-19 franchises will remain multibillion-dollar revenue generators for the foreseeable future, which should serve as a buffer for any unforeseen challenges with other products,” said Albert Bourla, Pfizer chief executive.

Bourla told analysts on a conference call it was not unreasonable that annual sales of Pfizer’s Covid products — its vaccine Comirnaty and Paxlovid — could be worth about $15bn by 2030. But this would depend on how the virus evolved, he said.

Pfizer has almost doubled the price of its Covid vaccine since it launched in December 2020 and last month said it could increase the price to between $110 and $130 a shot, helping to offset weaker demand.

The US government paid almost $30 a shot for Pfizer’s new bivalent booster in June, which targets the BA4/BA5 variants. But the US market is expected to transition to a commercial marketplace next year, giving vaccine makers more flexibility to raise prices.

Evan Seigerman, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said even though sales of its Covid vaccine — sold under the brand name Comirnaty — had beaten expectations, the company faced challenges next year and would have to rely on its wider portfolio to drive growth.

“While the bears will point to the massive Comirnaty beat as unsustainable, we’re not yet throwing in the towel given an emerging pipeline and significant balance sheet flexibility,” he said.

Pfizer is racing to launch 19 new products over the next 18 months to compensate for a moderation in Covid sales in coming years and the loss of exclusivity in several existing medicines. About two-thirds of these products have the potential to become blockbusters generating more than $1bn a year in sales, the company said.

Pfizer said it would apply for regulatory approval for a world first maternal vaccine targeting respiratory syncytial virus, a respiratory disease that can be life-threatening for infants. This follows a late-stage trial that showed it provided strong protection against severe disease in babies within the first six months of life.

The company reported sales of $22.6bn in the third quarter, down 6 per cent on the same period last year during the peak of the pandemic, but ahead of analysts’ forecasts. Net profit of $8.6bn was 6 per cent higher than a year ago and topped Wall Street’s expectations.

Pfizer upgraded its 2022 full-year earnings forecast to a range of $6.40 and $6.50 a share. It also narrowed its revenue guidance to a range between $99.5bn to $102bn.