The covid-19 vaccine boosted the sales of large laboratories during the first quarter of 2022, with advances of between 60% and 213%. Although the fight against SARS-CoV-2 will continue to be a profitable division, the boom would be temporary, as analysts see it.
Pfizer sales, for example, grew 77% in the quarter, to 25 thousand 661 million dollars, against 14 thousand 516 million dollars in the same period, but last year. Only the sale of vaccines was 14 thousand 941 million dollars, an amount above everything that was sold in the same period of 2021, and it is that the sale of vaccines against covid-19 has represented an important pillar of growth for the company.
Thanks to the development of the vaccine, Pfizer’s revenue doubled from 2019 to 2021, going from 40.9 billion dollars to 81.3 billion dollars. For this year, the goal is for sales to be between 98 thousand and 102 billion dollars, which would imply an advance against 2021 of up to 25.4 percent.
Astra Zeneca (AZ) is another example of growth; the laboratory achieved an advance in sales of 60%, going from 7 thousand 320 million to 11 thousand 390 million dollars in the first quarter of the year.
During the first quarter, Moderna’s sales advanced to six thousand 66 million dollars, against one thousand 937 million in the same period, but a year earlier, a jump of 213% for a laboratory that is confident of continuing to advance thanks to its vaccine.
The expansion of this laboratory due to covid-19 has been overwhelming, as it went from selling 60 million dollars in 2019 to 18 thousand 471 million in 2021.
And then…
Although 40% of the population is not vaccinated against the virus on a global scale, the maximum level of sales of the vaccine has already arrived and the next step is to innovate to maintain the growth and size achieved by the companies behind the drug, a challenge that is not easy .
For example, of the expectations of the laboratories is AZ, which in its last quarterly report noted: “Total income from medicines for covid-19 is expected to decrease.”
The expectation is that sales of Vaxzevria (the name of its vaccine) will slow down. However, AZ’s goal is to make up for that decline with an advance on Evusheld, a drug that is being used to prevent covid.
In this regard, Humberto Calzada, chief economist for Rankia Latam, explained that “all businesses are cyclical, laboratories benefited from the covid situation, because they saw the need to create vaccines, but, like all diseases, they reach peak and tipping point at some point.”
After the vaccine boom, now the laboratories have to look for new products to maintain sales.
By: Erendira Espinosa
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