Political | Process

The US drugmaker’s overall revenues in 2021 doubled to $81.3bn, and it expects to make record revenues of $98bn to $102bn this year.

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The bumper sales prompted accusations from campaigners of “pandemic profiteering”. The group Global Justice Now said the annual revenue of $81bn was more than the GDP of most countries and accused Pfizer of “ripping off public health systems”.

The Covid jab Comirnaty, which the New-York based pharma firm developed with the much smaller German company BioNTech, brought in $12.5bn in revenues in the final quarter of 2021, taking the total for the year to $36.8bn.

Pfizer said it had exceeded its target of manufacturing 3bn doses of the vaccine last year.

The drugmaker made a net profit of nearly $22bn last year, up from $9.1bn in 2020. It increased its 2022 estimate for Comirnaty sales to $32bn and expects Paxlovid to contribute $22bn in revenues.

The pill, which boasts nearly 90% success in preventing severe illness among vulnerable adults if taken soon after becoming infected with Covid-19, was approved for emergency use by the US regulator in late December.

A few days later, Paxlovid received the green light in the UK, where the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency described it as a “life-saving” treatment. It has now received emergency approval in 40 countries.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said that at the start of the pandemic it had “committed to use all of the resources and expertise we had at our disposal to help protect populations globally against the virus”.