The pharmaceutical group Pfizer announced on Thursday that sales of its vaccine and its anti-Covid pill boosted its results in the second quarter. Thus, from April to June, the laboratory’s turnover jumped 47% to reach 27.74 billion dollars, a record. The group added that it still expects to sell its products for $54 billion for the full year. The company’s net profit, meanwhile, soared 78% to $9.9 billion.
As for sales of the vaccine against Covid-19 Comirnaty, developed in collaboration with the German group BioNTech, they reached 8.8 billion dollars, an increase of 20% compared to the same period in 2021, with an increase in sales in emerging countries and deliveries in certain developed countries. On the other hand, deliveries slowed in the United States and Canada. Regarding the anti-Covid pill Paxlovid, launched at the end of 2021 and recently used by US President Joe Biden, its sales reached 8.1 billion dollars.
The share of the anti-Covid pill and the vaccine in Pfizer’s profits is far from negligible. Indeed, without these two products, and without currency effects, Pfizer’s sales would have increased by only 1%. Sales of Pfizer’s smoking cessation treatment, Champix, have meanwhile been reduced to almost nothing, the group having suspended its distribution due to the excessive presence of a potentially carcinogenic component.
The laboratory maintained its forecasts for the full year, despite a greater than initially expected impact of exchange rate effects on its revenues: the rise in the dollar lowers the value of profits earned abroad when they are converted into US currency.