Pfizer hikes 2021 outlook after vaccine boosts sales, profit

FILE- A health care worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Thursday, July 22, 2021, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The number of Americans getting a COVID-19 vaccine has been rising in recent days as virus cases once again surge and officials raise dire warnings about the consequences of remaining unvaccinated. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The Pfizer logo is displayed at the company's headquarters, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, in New York. Pfizer posted better than expected profits and revenues for the second quarter and raised its outlook for the year on the strong performance, including sales of its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer Inc. reported second-quarter net income of $5.56 billion Wednesday, July 28, 2021, or 98 cents per share, or $1.07 per share when one-time gains and losses are removed. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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%, 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 $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% 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 $5.56 billion, or 98 cents per share, up from $3.49 billion, or 62 cents per share.

Adjusted income, excluding one-time gains and losses, amounted to $6.08 billion, or $1.07 per share, well above the 97 cents that Wall Street had expected.

Its quarterly revenue of $18.98 billion far exceeded last year's $9.86 billion, and also topped projections.

Pfizer shares rose $1.46, or 3.5%, to $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% to $1.48 billion, while Ibrance sales edged up 4% to $1.4 billion in the quarter.

Pfizer's pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13 — until now the world's most lucrative vaccine — saw sales climb 11% to $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% 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 $3.95 to $4.05 per share, up from its May forecast of $3.55 to $3.65 per share, and revenue in the range of $78 billion to $80 billion, up from $70.5 billion to $72.5 billion.

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