Pfizer estimates $15 billion profit this year from big sales of Chinese communist virus vaccine

Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday (Feb. 2) self-estimated that this year, sales of a vaccine for the Chinese common virus (Wuhan pneumonia), developed in partnership with Germany‘s BioNTech, will total $15 billion.

The New York City-based drugmaker revealed the annual revenue forecast in a statement Tuesday and said the forecast primarily includes doses that will be delivered this year under existing contracts, which may be adjusted as additional contracts are added or removed.

This is the first Time Pfizer has revealed its expectations for vaccine sales, having said in January that they seek to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccine in 2021 to meet more orders from countries around the world. The two companies already have more than half of that capacity.

As of Jan. 31, Pfizer had supplied 65 million doses globally and 29 million doses to the United States. The company said it expects to supply 200 million doses of the vaccine to the U.S. government by the end of May.

Pfizer forecasts that sales excluding the CCP virus vaccine this year fall between $44.4 billion and $46.4 billion; if vaccine sales are included, total sales are expected to be between $59.4 billion and $61.4 billion. Sales of the CCP virus vaccine are expected to contribute nearly 25%.

Pfizer said their revenue for the full year last year totaled $41.9 billion, an increase of $736 million, or 2%, from 2019.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and CEO, said “2020 is a year of change” and “together with our partner BioNTech, we have achieved record success in developing the COVID-19 vaccine .”

The company now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $3.10 to $3.20, up from its previous forecast of $3 to $3.10 per share. Excluding items, Pfizer’s earnings per share were 42 cents, below market expectations of 48 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, was the first to receive an emergency use authorization (EUA) in the U.S. for the vaccine it developed with BioNTech during the current outbreak.