US-based drug maker, Pfizer Inc. has said that it is expecting to make sales of $15 billion of its coronavirus vaccine that it has developed with German company BioNTech. This vaccine was the first one to be authorized by countries for use, including the US and the UK. The sales of the vaccine represent a quarter of the company’s expected revenue for the year. A number of countries around the world have been making an effort to vaccinate their citizens in a bid to aid economic recovery and save lives. Pfizer aim’s to deliver 2 billion doses of the vaccine this year as quickly as possible, as more and more countries are rushing to sign supply deals.
In last year’s fourth quarter, Pfizer was able to make sales of $154 million due to the coronavirus vaccine. Out of the various companies that are rushing to launch the COVID-19 vaccine this year, analysts expect both Pfizer, as well as its rival Moderna, to rake in billions of dollars in 2021. There have also been concerns that delivery schedules could be disrupted because of global wrangling over supplies. Over the previous weekend, the EU decided to backtrack on a decision that could have prevented shipments from entering into the United Kingdom, as part of an emergency provision made in the Brexit deal.
The plans were part of the new export controls for vaccines developed by the European Union in order to deal with the shortfalls in delivery. Pfizer has made a commitment of delivering 40 million doses of the vaccine to the United Kingdom by the end of the year. Japan announced on Tuesday that they would receive all of the doses they had purchased from Pfizer and BioNTech after concerns that the country’s inoculation program could be delayed due to the export controls of the EU. Japan is behind most major economies when it comes to launching vaccination campaigns and this is because of its insistence that vaccines go through domestic trials and its dependence on overseas drug companies.
The country is planning to launch its campaign in mid-February and will use the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Both BioNTech and Pfizer have increased their manufacturing capacity from 1.3 billion doses a year to 2 billion doses in order to meet demand. This was disclosed by Ugur Sahin, the chief executive at BioNTech. He said that this will help them in delivering the doses to Japan as well. There had been delays in the supply of vaccine to parts of Europe because of changes made in the manufacturing process for boosting production.
However, on Monday, BioNTech said that the companies were back on track once again for meeting their timeline for European countries. In order to achieve the global goal that Pfizer has set for itself, the company would have to deliver an average of approximately 10 million doses on a weekly basis. Other countries like China have also developed their own vaccine and some others are also working on it in order to vaccinate as many people as possible.
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