The anti-Covid vaccine boosted the group’s results, up 77% over one year.
The American pharmaceutical group Pfizer recorded sales of 25.7 billion dollars in the first quarter, up 77% year on year, largely thanks to sales of its vaccine against Covid-19. The company has also maintained its forecast of selling $ 22 billion of its anti-Covid pill, Paxlovid, over the whole year, according to its financial results published on Tuesday.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly recommended this antiviral in April for patients with less severe forms of Covid-19 and “at higher risk of hospitalization“.
Pfizer, on the other hand, revised its annual profit estimate downwards, mainly due to a change in its accounting standards. The American stock market regulator requires pharmaceutical groups to include certain expenses, in particular for acquisitions in research and development, in their financial projections. Pfizer now expects annual earnings per share to be between $6.25 and $6.45, down from a range of $6.35 to $6.55 previously.
Humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian people
Forecasts for annual turnover, on the other hand, are still between 98 and 102 billion dollars. The Cominarty vaccine against Covid-19 should represent sales of 32 billion dollars. From January to March, the group’s net profit reached 7.9 billion dollars. Reported per share and excluding exceptional items, earnings were $1.62, above market forecasts.
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“We continue to deliver Cominarty to the world, which remains a crucial tool in helping patients and societies avoid the worst effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.“, commented the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, quoted in a press release. “We are on track to meet our commitment to deliver at least 2 billion pods to low- and middle-income countries in 2021 and 2022, including at least 1 billion this year“, added the leader.
On the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the group recalled that it had maintained its humanitarian deliveries of medicines to Russia, but that all the profits of its subsidiaries in the country were used to finance humanitarian aid for the people. Ukrainian. Pfizer has also indicated that it will no longer initiate clinical trials in Russia, no longer recruit new patients for ongoing clinical trials and suspend future investments in local partners for the construction of factories. Pfizer shares fell 1.2% in electronic trading before the opening of the session on Wall Street.
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