Washington, Feb. 8 (BUS): Sales of COVID-19 vaccines boosted Pfizer’s fourth-quarter earnings, but the drugmaker is setting up a smaller-than-expected hurdle for 2022.
Pfizer on Tuesday released annual forecasts for both earnings and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations even as the drugmaker expected another strong year of sales from its Comirnaty vaccine and novel coronavirus treatment, Paxlovid. Its stock started to slide in early trading.
Pfizer expects Comirnaty to generate another $32 billion in sales in 2022, while Wall Street is eyeing more than $34 billion. Both the company and The Street expect another $22 billion in sales from Paxlovid, which won regulatory approval in the United States shortly before Christmas.
Overall, Pfizer expects adjusted earnings in the new year to range from $6.35 to $6.55 per share on $98 billion to $102 billion in revenue.
Industry analysts expect earnings of $6.71 per share on revenue of $103.18 billion, according to FactSet.
Pfizer’s shot-to-shot coronavirus vaccine made $36.78 billion in 2021, its first full year on the market.
The $12.5 billion sales it posted in the fourth quarter helped Pfizer double its top line compared to the last quarter of 2020.
The COVID-19 vaccine became Pfizer’s best-selling product by the second quarter of last year, before children started receiving the shots and adults started receiving the booster shots.
The New York drugmaker books the vast majority of revenue from Comirnaty and splits profits, as well as the cost of making and distributing the vaccine, with development partner BioNTech.
Outside of Comirnaty and Paxlovid, Pfizer’s products include many other cancer treatments, vaccines, and internal medicine medications such as Eliquis, to prevent blood clots and strokes.
Overall, Pfizer reported adjusted earnings of $1.08 for the fourth quarter on $23.84 billion in revenue.
Analysts had expected earnings of 87 cents per share on sales of $24.16 billion for the fourth quarter.
The company’s shares were down more than 3%, or $1.97, to $51.24, before markets opened.
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