Pfizer is having a good year. Following third-quarter sales figures that beat even the most optimistic estimates, the company has raised its guidance for 2021.
Pfizer now expects to rake in up to $82bn in the full year, up from $41.9bn in 2020, powered by $36bn from 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty. It has raised its 2021 guidance for adjusted diluted EPS to $4.13-$4.18.
From July to September, Pfizer’s revenues were $24.1bn, representing operational growth of 130%, although revenues from Pfizer’s other drugs also grew to $11.1 bn, up by 7% from the same period last year.
“While we are proud of our third quarter financial performance, we are even more proud of what these financial results represent in terms of the positive impact we are having on human lives around the world,” said Pfizer chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla.
He said the company was on track to achieve its goal of delivering “at least two billion doses” to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2022, with at least one billion being delivered this year. Pfizer will supply one billion doses to the US government on a not-for-profit basis to be donated to the world’s poorest nations free of charge, he added.
“Despite all we have been able to accomplish to date, we remain focused on our future, not our past. Our ultimate goal is to help bring this pandemic to an end as quickly as possible, but also to apply the lessons we have learned through our work on the vaccine to all of our therapeutic areas. We look forward to providing future updates on these efforts,” said Bourla.
In addition to $13bn in sales from Comirnaty, anticoagulant Eliquis (apixaban) grew by 19% to $1.3bn, amyloidosis therapy Vyndaqel/Vyndamax (tafamidis) was up by 42% to $502m and Inlyta increased its sales by 30%, driven by first-line use in advanced renal cell carcinoma.
Pfizer’s biosimilars business grew by 34% to $575m, driven by the launches of Ruxience (rituximab), Zirabev (bevacizumab) and Trazimera (trastuzumab), as well as continued growth from Retacrit (epoetin) in the US. The company now has the largest portfolio in the industry with six biosimilars approved in the US for patients living with cancer.