Pfizer Inc. (PFE) posted better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings Tuesday, and forecast $54 billion in vaccine and treatment sales for the coming year, as it continues to outpace rivals in Covid treatment developments.
Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in December were pegged at $1.08 per share, a 157% increase from the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of 87 cents. Group revenues, Pfizer said, surged 104% to $23.8 billion, a figure that fell just shy of analysts' estimates of an $24.1 billion tally.
Looking into the 2022 financial year Pfizer said its sees adjusted earnings in the region of $6.35 to $6.65 per share, compared to the Refinitiv forecast of $6.69, and revenues of between $98 billion and $102 billion.
Sales of Pfizer's Comirnaty vaccine are expected to top $32 billion a $1 billion improvement from its prior forecast, while revenues from its recently-approved Covid pill Paxlovid are forecast to come in at $22 billion.
“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," said CEO Albert Bourla. "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 (BNTX)) and the first FDA-authorized oral treatment for COVID-19,” he added.
Pfizer shares were marked 5.5% lower in early Tuesday trading following the earnings release to change hands at $50.26 each, a move that would trim the stock's six-month gain to around 9.3%.
Late last year, Pfizer said it will sell around 10 million of its Paxlovid treatment, which won Emergency Use Approval (EUA) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration on December 22, to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
At $530 per tablet, the cost is around 25% cheaper than the $700 price agreed with Merck & Co. (MRK) in October to buy 1.7 million doses its 'molnupiravir' treatment of "mild-to-moderate Covid in adults who are at risk for progressing to severe forms of disease, or hospitalization.
