Pfizer is charging $130 for its COVID-19 vaccine - a 10,000% mark-up from the estimated $1.18 it costs them to develop a single dose of the vaccine. The firm was charging the US government around $20 per shot but rose prices in an effort to make up for poor demand for the jabs. It is forecasted to rake in over $100billion in revenue this year, and brought in $81.2billion last year. These figures well clear the $40billion per year it was earning the years prior. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has earned $50million in compensation over the past two years, while BioNTech found Dr Ugar Sahin is now a billionaire.
David Denton told investors in an earnings call last week his company's vaccine and antiviral would still be 'relevant for many years to come'.
The CFO said he expects the Covid virus to be 'somewhat like a flu... but more deadly' — meaning therapeutics will still have a massive role in controlling the virus.
So far Pfizer has reaped about $80 billion in yearly revenue from sales of Covid vaccines and the antiviral drug Paxlovid.
The company announced last month it will triple the price of its shot to up to $130 per dose next year — a far cry from the roughly $19 to $30 per dose that the government paid.
Some experts estimate each individual shot to cost just $1.18 to make — meaning the new price represents a 10,000 per cent markup.
Analysts speculate that the move was made so Pfizer could still meet its target of $32 billion of projected vaccine revenue this year.
Critics say that the decision shows the firm's greed. Peter Maybarduk, director of access to medicines at Public Citizen, told DailyMail.com that the firm was already in a good of financial position that they could take some loss.
Maybarduk also said that the firm has already made an 'obscene' amount of money, and will be ok if they do not meet revenue projections that were likely inflated anyways.
Pfizer was an early winner during the pandemic when it became the first company to get a Covid-19 vaccine approved for the US market. Subsequent vaccine mandates for healthcare workers and the military further drove up sales of vaccines.
The company projects $102 billion in total revenue this year with the vaccine and its antiviral Paxlovid - more than double the company's yearly revenue in 2019 ($40.9 billion) and 2020 ($41.7 billion).
Julia Kosgei, policy advisor to the The People's Vaccine Alliance said: 'Experts have estimated that Pfizer's vaccine costs just $1.18 per dose to make... Charging $130 per dose would represent a markup of more than ten thousand per cent. This is daylight robbery.'
'Governments must not stand by while companies like Pfizer hold the world to ransom in a global pandemic,' she added.
Contracts signed by the government to secure billions of doses of vaccines at no cost to Americans will run out soon, shifting the cost of purchasing shots to health insurance companies.
Pfizer CFO David Denton told investors: 'I think if you look out longer term, the franchise is going to be a multibillion-dollar franchise in the respect that this is going to be somewhat like a flu, sustained flu, but actually more deadly than the flu.
'I think the products, both from a vaccine and the therapy perspective that Pfizer has developed, are going to be quite relevant for many years to come,' he said.
Pfizer's move to hike up the cost of each Covid shot for the private health insurance market likely would not affect people with private insurance or those enrolled in the government healthcare programs Medicare and Medicaid. Health plans typically cover the costs of vaccines.
But people paying out of pocket may be forced to pay more for a Covid shot than the cost of a flu shot, which can range in price from around $50 to $95.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told investors last Tuesday: 'With regard to our COVID-19 products, while their sales may fall from our expected 2022 levels of approximately combined $55 billion, we believe our COVID-19 franchises will remain multibillion-dollar revenue generators for the foreseeable future which should serve as a buffer for any unforeseen challenges with other products in our portfolio.'
The federal government was able to foot the bill for vaccines for so long thanks to purchasing deals with manufacturers.
The government has spent billions of dollars on vaccine purchases, but the doses that have been stockpiled are dwindling without prospects for being replenished.
The Biden administration will require congressional action to draw up a new contract with Pfizer for more vaccines.
In September, the White House petitioned Congress for an additional $22.4 billion in COVID-19 funding. Funds to buy and distribute shots could dry up as early as January 2021 and a Republican-controlled Congress is not likely to replenish those coffers.
The GOP is slated to win big in this year's midterm elections. Party leadership has previewed plans to probe what they see as the Biden administration's unaccountable coronavirus spending.
Pfizer expects to get even richer regardless of any new government contract thanks to its many lucrative business acquisitions.
In October, it purchased the drug company Biohaven, whose migraine drug Nurtec ODT brought in $324 million in the first half of 2022, for about $11.6 billion.
The company also expects its vaccines in development for respiratory syncitial virus to be a big earner once it earns regulatory approval. The company is working on shots to help seniors who are at higher risk of contracting the disease as well as pregnant women who, when given the shots, confer some protection to their babies in utero.
Bourla said: 'So there is the potential that, subject to regulatory approval, by late 2023, early 2024, we could have the only RSV maternal vaccine in the market, along with an RSV vaccine for older adults.'
'Combined, the 2 indications represent a potential multibillion-dollar peak revenue opportunity if approved, especially with our highly respected primary care sales force executing these launches,' he added.
Comment: See also: