Pfizer Inc. outperformed the healthcare sector in 2021, but late December ushered in a steady dwindling of the company’s share price. Vaccine super stock PFE hasn’t stopped slipping since the very start of the year. From being beaten to approval by growth hormone brand Ngenla to the FDA’s decline of approval of their growth hormone deficiency drug and the delay of their childrens’ vaccine, it hasn’t been an easy first quarter for Pfizer. Yet, 2022 has only just begun and Pfizer’s drug is already well-established as the leading vaccine, and so is the company’s reputation as the largest player in big pharma.
Profits Exceed Estimates
Following Pfizer’s fourth-quarter earnings report, investors found that the only metric that exceeded analyst estimates was profits alone. This being said, earnings did rise 152% for the quarter, and sales were up 105%. When one considers this aside from the fact that the world is still battling omicron and that experts largely agree that we’ll be living with the coronavirus for at least another ten years, the logic behind Biden’s administration celebrating Pfizer’s Paxlovid vaccine as “game changer” becomes easier to put into perspective.
Strong Sales With Great Momentum For 2022
Instead of reporting sales projections when announcing the annual revenue guidance, Pfizer instead only tallies coronavirus vaccine sales agreements that have already been signed for 2022. This means that there are no speculations regarding forthcoming sales included in the figures. Pfizer expects revenues to fall between $98 billion and $102 billion for the year. COVID-19 Vaccine sales account for $32 billion, and antiretrovirals tally $22 billion. Last year the company forecast $12 billion vaccine sales for 2021 and ended up reporting $36 billion in sales by the time the year was done. Could 2022 revisit this trend and end up pulling in more mammoth sales figures?
Earnings From COVID-19 Vaccine & Antiviral
Last year, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine brought in $12.billion in revenue, which is just about half the company’s quarterly revenue in total. Individually, Comirnaty, the COVID-19 vaccine, brought in $12.5 billion in total revenue, whereas the oral antiviral Paxlovid earned $76 million. PFE revenue guidance sits at $98 billion to $102 billion, with an annual adjusted EPS falling between $6.35 to $6.55. This assumes vaccine revenue of $32 billion and Paxlovid revenue of $22 billion. Pfizer forecasts anticipate the new oral antiviral and vaccine sales to bring in at least $54 billion for 2022.
Pfizer Inc.Negotiating More Sales & Working On More Drugs
By approximately March, Pfizer and BioNTech plan to release a vaccine that specifically protects against omicron effectively. This is on top of the fact that there are another 4 billion doses of the first vaccine on the way, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla divulged to Barron’s that there are still negotiations for more vaccine sales for the year ongoing. The company is negotiating with several governments. Lower intensity doses are currently being tested across three different vaccines for children under the age of 5, and clinical trials also show that these treatments are just as effective in children under two as it is presently in teenagers and adults.
A Potential Boom In Sales On The Way
Despite the sharp plummet in PFE’s trading price over the start of the year, Investopedia reminds us that Pfizer options traders are raking up massive amounts of call options which usually hint towards a bull market. There’s also the distinct possibility of Pfizer smashing its sales targets across vaccines, antiretrovirals, and many other treatments like Pfizer’s Cibinqo (abrocitinib) for dermatitis, which would mean that the current share price is quite close to a buy. Furthermore, China approved Paxlovid on February 21st, making it the very first foreign pharmaceutical certified to treat COVID-19. All signs point to another astonishing year from Pfizer, with growth directly driven by vaccine sales but not relying on them alone for stability.
A Bright Future For PFE
It is highly unlikely that the world’s vaccine leader will suffer this year. Quite the contrary. Seven out of ten vaccines administered in the US and Europe are from Pfizer, and now the company supplies China as well. As compared to its closest rival, Merck, Pfizer exhibits greater efficacy with an average of 89% risk reduction of hospitalisation or death, whereas Merck only offers 30%. Pfizer is already testing new incarnations of its vaccine in an attempt to make it work better against new variants. No big pharma company can compare with Pfizer’s relationships with governments and global infrastructure. Research and development are on the rise. All signs point towards a company that’ll be growing for a long time to come.
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