Switch from selling COVID-19 drugs on market rather than to governments continues to sting at Pfizer

Pfizer’s forecast for sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment next year falls more than $5 billion short of the Wall Street consensus. The drugmaker’s sales tumbled in early morning trading.

Pfizer expects sales for both the treatment, Paxlovid, and the vaccine, Comirnaty, to total $8 billion in 2024, according to an initial forecast the drugmaker released Wednesday.

Analysts expect nearly $14 billion combined sales, with $8.34 billion coming from Comirnaty and Paxlovid contributing $5.55 billion, according to FactSet.

Those products combined to rake in more than $56 billion in sales last year, Paxlovid’s first full year on the market. But both Pfizer and the Street expected a decline starting this year as demand waned and the drugmaker switched to selling through the commercial market instead of in bulk to the federal government.

Still, Pfizer warned in October that sales of the vaccine and treatment were turning out weaker than expected.

T he drugmaker also reported a third-quarter loss of more than $2 billion as falling sales of COVID-19 products clipped revenue.

Sales of Pfizer’s COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid and the vaccine Comirnaty slid 97% and 70%, respectively, during the quarter.

The switch to a commercial market means drugmakers have to handle distribution to drugstores and other providers and negotiate with pharmacy benefit managers and other payers.

On Wednesday, the company said that it expects full-year revenue in 2024 of between $58.5 billion and $61.5 billion, short of the $62.7 billion that Wall Street was expecting, according to a survey of industry analysts by FactSet.

The New York drugmaker’s profit expectations also sit well below what many had been expecting. Pfizer expects to post per-share earnings of between $2.05 and $2.25 next year. Wall Street was projecting earnings of around $3.17 per share.

Company shares were down nearly 7%, or $1.92, to $26.66 in premarket trading.