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The pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced Wednesday that it has obtained a net profit of 10,440 million dollars in the first half of 2021, up 53 % compared to the same period last year, boosted by its vaccine against covid-19 that it developed together with the German BioNTech, and also improved its business forecasts.
In a statement, Pfizer revealed that its revenue in the first six months of 2021 amounted to 33,559 billion, up 68 % year-on-year, mainly thanks to the strong contribution of sales of the anti-covid vaccine in the second and most recent quarter.
In that period, the most highly valued by Wall Street analysts, the New York-based company posted earnings of $5,563 million (up 59 %) after nearly doubling its revenues to $18,977 million (up 92 %).
“The second quarter was extraordinary in a number of ways. Most visibly, the speed and efficiency of our efforts with BioNTech to help vaccinate the world against covid-19 were unprecedented, and more than 1 billion doses of BNT162b2 were distributed globally,” said top executive Albert Bourla.
According to the balance sheet figures, in the second quarter Pfizer achieved 7,8 billion in direct sales and combined revenues from the vaccine against the coronavirus, a good result that has led the firm to revise upwards its estimates for the year as a whole.
The company expects to earn $33,5 billion this year from the vaccine alone, attributable to the 2,1 billion doses it has committed to deliver under its signed contracts through mid-July.
Previously, that estimate stood at $26 billion, but the company had already warned that it expected to have sustainable revenues over time from the fight against the pandemic, especially while additional injections are being considered.
“Based on current projections, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to manufacture in total up to 3 billion doses through the end of December 2021, subject to continued improvement processes, expansion of its existing facilities, and the addition of new suppliers and contract manufacturers,” the release contends.
In its company-wide forecast for 2021, Pfizer has raised its revenue estimates to a range between 78 billion and 80 billion, significantly higher than the more optimistic range of 72,5 billion it previously had.
In this regard, the chairman and CEO pointed to the good performance of the pharmaceutical company’s business in general, with the largest source of revenue in its vaccines division (14,127 billion in the first six months of the year).
In second place came oncology products (6,007 million), internal medicine (4,997 million), hospital products (4,602 million), immunologicals (2,107 million) and rare diseases (1,720 million).
The results, released before Wall Street opened, exceeded analysts’ expectations and Pfizer shares were up 0.64 % in pre-market electronic trading. For the year as a whole, it has gained 14 %.
