Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said Tuesday the company had been mandated to ship 1.6 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine worldwide this year and the company expects to deliver at least 3 billion doses of the vaccine by 2022 to produce. The company is in talks with countries for multi-year contracts with potential delivery.
Bourla said the company expects its Covid-19 vaccine to generate sales of around $ 26 billion in 2021.
Pfizer says it is not yet clear how long the vaccine will protect against Covid-19, but Bourla said demand for the vaccine is expected to remain high. “Based on what we’ve seen, we believe continued demand for our COVID-19 vaccine – similar to the flu vaccines – is a likely outcome,” Bourla said.
In addition to testing a third dose as a booster against variants, Pfizer is also working on a version of the vaccine that specifically targets the B.1351 variant, which was first identified in South Africa, according to Bourla. According to Bourla, efficacy data for both the booster and the B.1351-specific vaccine would be available in early July. He noted that the B.1351 variant vaccine study design would potentially be a prototype so Pfizer could update it to target new variants of concern in about 100 days.
Bourla also said the company is working on testing two antiviral treatments to treat Covid-19, one shot and the other orally. The company expects to begin phase 2/3 trials of these treatments this summer and expects to apply for approvals by the end of the year. Treatments will be tested for effectiveness in treating Covid-19 and evaluated against current monoclonal antibody treatment against Covid-19. They are also tested as potential prophylaxis and tested in unvaccinated households with Covid-19 infection to see if it prevents additional infections.