Pfizer expects to sell $54 billion worth of COVID-19 shots, treatment pills in 2022

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Pharma company Pfizer said on Tuesday that it expects to generate more than $50 billion in revenues this year from its COVID-19 vaccine and antiviral treatment pill.

The company reported its 2022 forecast in its quarterly earnings report, which showed that Pfizer made almost $24 billion in revenue in the final quarter of 2021. About half of that came from sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and $76 million from sales of its antiviral treatment Paxlovid, which was the first COVID-19 treatment pill authorized in the United States.

Pfizer's fourth-quarter earnings were mixed -- beating expectations for earnings per share but slightly missing projections for revenue.

Pfizer is presently seeking regulatory approval for a smaller dose of its COVID-19 vaccine specifically for children under 5, which is the last group of people in the U.S. that's not yet eligible to be vaccinated. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI

For all of 2021, Pfizer said it made $81.3 billion in revenue -- about twice its figure from 2020. Fourth-quarter earnings increased by more than double compared to 2020.

For 2022, Pfizer said it expects to sell $32 billion worth of its COVID-19 vaccine, known as Comirnaty, and $22 billion worth of Paxlovid.

"In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we committed to using all of the resources and expertise we had at our disposal to help protect populations globally against this deadly virus," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.

"Now, less than two years since we made that commitment, we are proud to say that we have delivered both the first FDA-authorized vaccine against COVID-19 (with our partner, BioNTech) and the first FDA-authorized oral treatment for COVID-19."

Pfizer announced last month that it had begun a study to test a new COVID-19 vaccine geared specifically to fight the Omicron coronavirus variant. It's also developing a smaller dose of its regular COVID-19 vaccine for children under the age of 5.