Pfizer hikes 2021 outlook after vaccine boosts sales profit

By Linda A Johnsonap
    Washington, Jul 28 (AP) Strong sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and other medicines helped Pfizer nearly double its second-quarter revenue and boost its profit an impressive 59 per cent, beating Wall Street expectations and leading the drug giant to sharply hike its 2021 sales and profit forecasts.
    Amid the surging coronavirus pandemic, the COVID-19 vaccine became Pfizer's top seller, bringing in nearly half its revenue — $7.84 billion from direct sales and revenue split with its partner, Germany's BioNTech.
    Pfizer now anticipates revenue from the two-dose vaccine this year to reach USD 33.5 billion for the 2.1 billion doses it's contracted to provide by year end. That doesn't include a contract struck last week to provide an additional 200 million doses to the U.S.
    The New York company on Wednesday disclosed that ongoing testing of a booster shot, given six months after the second vaccine dose, showed it raised antibody levels against the more-transmissible Delta variant to 11 times higher in older people and five times higher in younger people, compared to levels after two doses.
     The company also released data showing that six months after vaccination, the shots were 97 per cent effective in preventing severe disease.
    “We are quite convinced that a booster will be needed,” CEO Albert Bourla said in an interview, adding that a third dose of the original vaccine could be sufficient. Still, Pfizer in August will start testing in volunteers a booster targeting the Delta variant, because “there's so much at stake, you can't take risks.”
     Pfizer has delivered more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine globally and expects to make 3 billion doses this year, with many more going to low- and middle-income countries from now through year's end, Bourla said. Most doses of all the COVID-19 vaccines produced in Europe and the U.S. so far have gone to wealthy countries.
    By the end of September, testing in 5- through 11-year-old volunteers should produce the safety and efficacy data needed to seek emergency use authorization in that age group, and data on testing in children from 6 months to 5 years old should follow soon after, according to Pfizer.
    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now reviewing data that could lead to full approval of the vaccine for adults, which Bourla said might reduce hesitancy to be vaccinated.
    Second-quarter net income was USD 5.56 billion, or 98 cents per share, up from USD 3.49 billion, or 62 cents per share.
    Adjusted income, excluding one-time gains and losses, amounted to USD 6.08 billion, or USD 1.07 per share, well above the 97 cents that Wall Street had expected.
    Its quarterly revenue of USD 18.98 billion far exceeded last year's USD 9.86 billion, and also topped projections.
    Pfizer shares rose USD 1.46, or 3.5 per cent, to USD 43.56, near a 52-week high.
    Sales jumped by double digits for Pfizer's drugs for cancer and rare diseases, as well as its medicines primarily used in hospitals. Sales of Eliquis, for preventing blood clots and strokes, jumped 16 per cent to USD 1.48 billion, while Ibrance sales edged up 4 per cent to USD 1.4 billion in the quarter.
    Pfizer's pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13 — until now the world's most lucrative vaccine — saw sales climb 11 per cent to USD 1.24 billion amid the pandemic. The company won U.S. approval in June for an updated version for adults, Prevnar 20, that protects against seven more strains of pneumococcal disease.
    In May, Pfizer and partner Myovant got approval for Myfembree, for reducing heavy menstrual bleeding due to uterine fibroids in premenopausal women.
    Pfizer research head Mikael Dolsten outlined eight major research programs with potential for major impact on public health, including a pill to treat COVID-19 and vaccines against Lyme disease and respiratory syncytial virus, which each year infects more than 5 per cent of older adults and kills about 15,000 of them in the U.S.
    Pfizer now expects adjusted full-year earnings in the range of USD 3.95 to USD 4.05 per share, up from its May forecast of USD 3.55 to USD 3.65 per share, and revenue in the range of USD 78 billion to USD 80 billion, up from USD 70.5 billion to USD 72.5 billion. (AP) MRJ

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)