Covid-19 has been branded a "multibillion-dollar" franchise by a senior figure at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, according to a report. Mail Online says chief financial officer David Denton also told investors he expects profits at the firm to keep on climbing.
He is reported to have made the comments during an earnings call last week when he is also alleged to have said Pfizer's antiviral would remain "relevant for many years to come". Explaining that he anticipates Covid will be "somewhat like a flu... but more deadly", he added that therapeutics will continue to play a crucial part in containing the virus.
Pfizer has earned around $80 billion in annual revenue from the sale of its jabs and antiviral drug Paxlovid. But it revealed in October that the price of its vaccine will be hiked by three times its current cost to a maximum of $130 per dose next year.
Each individual shot costs just $1.18 to make, according to some estimates. If such estimates are accurate, the new price would translate to a markup of 10,000 per cent.
Pfizer CFO David Denton told investors: "I think if you look out longer term, the franchise is going to be a multibillion-dollar franchise in the respect that this is going to be somewhat like a flu, sustained flu, but actually more deadly than the flu."
He continued: "‘I think the products, both from a vaccine and the therapy perspective that Pfizer has developed, are going to be quite relevant for many years to come."
Conjecture from some analysts suggests that the price was hiked so sharply in order for Pfizer to achieve its goal of $32 billion of projected vaccine revenue this year. The move has been slammed by some as greedy.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Peter Maybarduk, director of access to medicines at Public Citizen, said Pfizer is already in a strong position financially and could afford to absorb some losses. He added that the big pharma company had already made an "obscene" amount of money and does not need to hit revenue projection targets.
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