Vicky Arias, FISM News
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The pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, earned a record-breaking $100.3 billion in 2022 due to the distribution of its Covid vaccine, Comirnaty, and sales of its antiviral drug, Paxlovid.
“We exceeded $100 billion in revenues for the first time in our 174-year history,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, said in his prepared remarks on a conference call Tuesday.
In its fourth quarter presentation of 2022 earnings, Pfizer listed its top seven “growth drivers.” At the top were the company’s COVID products. Comirnarty, Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 jab, was number one, earning the company $37.8 billion last year, while Paxlovid came in second, racking in $18.9 billion dollars.
David Denton, Pfizer’s Chief Financial Officer, stated that he was “very pleased with [the company’s] fourth-quarter performance.
Pfizer expects 2023 to be a “transition year” for its vaccine and antiviral drug sales, announcing that profits from the two are expected to dip. Earnings from the vaccine are projected to drop to an estimated $13.5 billion, a $24.3 billion dip, and profits from Paxlovid are expected to decline to approximately $8 billion, a $10.9 billion reduction.
Bourla explained to investors that 2023 will be “a low point in [Pfizer’s] Covid-related revenues” in part “due to expected fewer primary vaccinations and reduced compliance with recommendations.”
Investors are showing signs of doubt in Pfizer’s earning potential as shares in the pharmaceutical company have dropped.
CNN Business reported that “shares of Pfizer are down more than 15% so far in 2023, following a 13% drop last year. The stock surged more than 60% in 2021 due to strong sales for its vaccine.”
According to the New York Post, “Bourla said the company expects to start selling its Covid vaccine … through commercial channels in the United States in the second half of 2023, rather than selling the shots directly to the government. After that transition, the company hopes to roughly quadruple the U.S. price of the vaccine.”
The pharmaceutical company laid out a plan for future profit-making in 2023 and beyond that included migraine drugs, RSV medication for adults, and, down the line, a Covid/Flu vaccine combo.
PROFIT-DRIVEN PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
As Pfizer and its investors earned staggering sums of money during the pandemic, attention has been drawn to the potential motivations behind vaccine mandates and the governmental push to get vaccinated.
A recent exposé from Project Veritas showed a top-level Pfizer official, Jordon Walker, in a video recording alleging that Pfizer had debated about whether or not it should mutate the Covid virus in order to produce vaccines in a prophylactic fashion. In the video, Walker also explained that Covid will continue to make money for Pfizer into the foreseeable future.
“Either way, it’s going to be a cash cow,” Walker said. “Covid will probably be a cash cow for us for a while going forward.”
Walker went on to claim that certain government officials who review Pfizer’s drugs desire to eventually go on to work for the company and are, therefore, not “harsh” on the review process.
After it was revealed to Walker that he had been recorded, he claimed to have been lying to impress a date.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Bourla questioning Walker’s statements.
“Mr. Walker stated that Pfizer is willing to engage in … dangerous research because Covid and its variants are ‘a cash cow’ for the company and regulators will go easy on their efforts because a significant percentage of government officials aim to work for Pfizer,” Rubio stated.
The Florida Senator also questioned Pfizer’s motives.
“If the claims detailed in the [Walker] video are true, Pfizer has put its desire for profit over the concern of national and global health and must hold itself accountable,” Rubio said.