Earlier this week, Pfizer reported its third quarter results, beating top- and bottom-line expectations and raising its guidance for 2021 yet again. The U.S. pharmaceutical giant reported $8.15 billion in net profit on revenue of $24.09 billion for the quarter ended September 30, mainly thanks to its COVID-19 vaccine. BNT162b2 or Comirnaty, as the drug is officially called, accounted for 54 percent of Pfizer’s revenue for the quarter, dwarfing any other drug in Pfizer’s vast portfolio.
Pfizer, which developed the vaccine in cooperation with German biotechnology company BioNTech, now expects to deliver 2.3 billion doses of the mRNA vaccine this year, raising its revenue guidance for the drug from $33.5 to $36 billion. Thanks to that increase, the company raised its overall revenue guidance to $81-$82 billion, which would represent 93 to 91 percent year-over-year growth.
The drugmaker stands to make a sizeable profit from its vaccine breakthrough, as it expects an adjusted income before tax margin in the high 20s for BNT162b2, even after accounting for the 50-percent gross profit split with BioNTech.
This chart shows Pfizer’s annual revenue since 2016.
