More than two years of the pandemic has brought huge benefits to one company — Pfizer — making it both extremely influential and hugely profitable as covid-19 continues to infect tens of thousands and kill hundreds every day .
Its success in developing Covid drugs gives the drugmaker unusual weight in determining U.S. health policy. The company’s executives often announce the next phase of the fight against the pandemic before government officials have time to study the issue, according to internal research, irritating many experts in medicine and leaving some patients unsure who to trust.
Pfizer’s 2021 revenue $81.3 billion, about double It raked in revenue in 2020 when its top-selling products were a pneumonia vaccine, cancer drug Ibrance and expired patented fibromyalgia treatment Lyrica.
Its mRNA vaccines now account for 70% of the U.S. and European markets. Its antiviral drug Paxlovid is the pill of choice for treating early symptoms of covid. This year, the company expects to earn more than $50 billion globally from these two drugs alone.
Pax Loved The value of vaccinations It’s not clear to patients that Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine doesn’t completely prevent infection, although each booster temporarily restores some protection. However, while patients may cringe at the need for repeated injections — two boosters are now recommended for those 50 and older — the demands are gold for investors.
“Hopefully we can offer it once a year, maybe more frequently for some high-risk groups,” CEO Albert Bourla tell investors This year. “Then you get treatment [Paxlovid] Arguably, this will solve the problems of those who contract the disease. “
Just last week, the Biden administration agreed to buy 105 million more doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for a fall booster campaign and pay $3.2 billion. At $30.47 per dose, the rate is significantly higher than the $19.50 per dose the government pays for the first 100 million people. The vaccine is being modified to target earlier omicron variants, but newer variants are taking hold.
Because the virus is constantly mutating and will be around for a long time, the market for Pfizer’s products will not disappear. In wealthier countries, the public may keep coming back for more, like diners at an all-you-can-eat restaurant, full but never fully satisfied.
Reliance on Pfizer products at every stage of the pandemic has guided the U.S. response, including key public health decisions.
when Last year, Bourla suggested A booster shot will be needed soon, U.S. public health officials Then it followed, giving the impression that Pfizer was tuning in. Some public health experts and scientists worry that these decisions were rushed, noting, for example, that while mRNA-injected boosters made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech initially improved antibody protection, they often didn’t last long.
Since January, Burra keeps saying U.S. adults may need annual booster shots, and top FDA officials have Since April said they agreed.
At an FDA advisory meeting on June 28, considering a potential fall vaccination campaign, Pfizer presented studies involving about 3,500 people that showed tweaks to its coronavirus vaccine allowed it to spark more targets for last year’s vaccine. Antibodies to the omicron variant that became popular in December. But most advisers say the FDA should require the next vaccine to target a newer variant of omicron, BA.5.
That would mean more work and expense for Pfizer, which has called on the FDA to enable it to make changes to its covid vaccine in the future without human trials — similar to how the flu vaccine is approved each year. “If such a process were implemented, the response to future waves could be greatly accelerated,” said Kena Swanson, vice president of viral vaccines at Pfizer.
FDA officials at the meeting did not immediately respond to the suggestion.
As society abandons other efforts to control the spread of the new coronavirus, such as mandatory mask wearing and physical distancing, Pfizer’s future looks brighter, especially now that the company has launched its first oral coronavirus treatment, Paxlovid.
“People are going to go out,” said Angela Hwang, president of Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group. Tell Investors May 3“We know all of this, and infections are going to increase, and that’s where Paxlovid can play.”
During a recent investor call, a Pfizer official could take a spin recent reports The virus could hide from Paxlovid as good news and predict that, as with the vaccine, patients may require multiple courses of treatment.
Immunocompromised patients “may carry the virus for an extended period of time,” Dr. Mikael Dolsten said on an investor call. “We see this area as a real new opportunity growth area that Paxlovid is doing very well, and you may need to take multiple courses.”
Pfizer is spending heavily to boost its influence during the pandemic.It has been bombarding since early 2020 over $25 million Lobbyed internally and paid to 19 lobbying firms to push for legislation to protect its products and promote a stronger U.S. vaccination program.
Pfizer donated more to political candidates than any other pharmaceutical company in the 2020 cycle, Total about $3.5 million, the largest share goes to Democrats. Joe Biden got $351,000; Donald Trump only got $103,000.
Unlike Moderna, Sanofi, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, which have been backed by billions of dollars in the United States, Pfizer has not sought government funding to develop its vaccine, saying it will operate independently.
Pfizer does benefit from $445 million The German government provided the vaccine to BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner in vaccine development. And, ultimately, Pfizer relies heavily on the logistical support of the U.S. government. new book Written by former HHS official Paul Mango.
Pfizer’s 2021 coronavirus vaccine revenue in the U.S. is $7.8 billion. The government has the option to buy 1.6 billion doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, of which 900 million have been purchased so far, 500 million of which are purchased at nonprofit prices and will be donated to poor countries.
Pfizer’s terms in the contract preclude many taxpayer protections. Robin Feldman, an expert in patent law at the University of California, said they deny the government owns any intellectual property and say federal spending has not played a role in vaccine development — even though NIH scientists invented a key feature of Pfizer’s vaccine .
“The agreement could set a precedent” where another company could invoke the Pfizer contract to argue that the government has waived any rights to the invention, she said.
The government also agreed to buy about 20 million five-day Paxlovid courses for $530 each.
Prices of coronavirus drugs and vaccines will rise once pandemic period ends, Bourla says at the January event“reflecting cutting-edge technology”.
Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo declined to answer specific questions about the impact of Pfizer’s policies on the pandemic. She issued a statement saying: “Since the first day of this pandemic, we have been focused on working with all relevant stakeholders to bring two medical breakthroughs to the world. In doing so, we have moved at the speed of science, Adhere to strict regulatory procedures and rely on the expertise and manufacturing capabilities of our scientists.”
There’s no question that the company hit a scientific home run in quickly responding to the medical needs created by the pandemic. it uses artificial intelligence Tracked the spread of the virus and found the best places to recruit volunteers for vaccine trials, and deployed a rapid drug screening tool to develop Paxlovid.
Its success with a Covid-19 vaccine offers hope Pfizer Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine, danger to infants and the elderly. The company is also seeking to license a vaccine to prevent Lyme disease and nosocomial infections.
Pfizer has long eschewed the vaccine business, and its financial returns have historically been modest. In the late 1960s, the company pulled out of the production of a human vaccine after recalling its disastrous measles vaccine, which caused an unexpected response of vaccine-stimulated antibodies after exposure to the virus, sickening dozens of children. The company, which returned to the field after acquiring Wyeth in 2009, is producing a highly potent and unusually lucrative vaccine against pneumonia and ear infections.
Now, Pfizer is a new kind of global giant.In 2021 only, the company Employs nearly 2,400 people. “We are now a household name to billions of people,” Bourla said in January. “People trust Pfizer’s vaccine.”
The company’s strength has worried some vaccine experts, who see it as a growing influence in a world of medical decision-making traditionally led by independent experts.
In a recent investor conference call, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman asked if the world is so often “somewhat blindly recommending boosters.”
data from Israel, which uses only Pfizer’s vaccine, and provide the most of Research This led to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending booster vaccinations, which showed that the third and fourth doses of the mRNA vaccine increased antibody levels, which in turn declined rapidly. The added booster saved some lives in people over 60, but the benefit of the data for younger people is unclear.
When President Biden offers boosters to Americans in September 2021 — shortly after Bourla recommended them — Dr. Paul Offett, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and developer of enterovirus vaccines, wonders, “Where is there evidence that you are at risk of serious illness from the coronavirus if you are vaccinated and under 50?”
Booster recommendation policies for different groups are complex and changing, Offit said, but they should be set by the CDC, not Bourla and Pfizer.
“We were being pushed around,” he said. “Pharmaceutical companies act like public health agencies.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that provides in-depth news coverage on health issues.Along with policy analysis and polling, KHN is one of the top three operating programs in the U.S. KFC (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is a donating non-profit organization that provides information on health issues to the state.
Photo: Robin Baker/AFP via Getty Images
