The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic is pushing more and more pharmaceutical companies to develop their own vaccines. How do these pharmaceutical companies perform during the pandemic?
Vaccine vs drugs: which one brings in more number?
According to CNN, vaccines are not really profitable for most pharmaceutical companies. What brings in money for these companies are drugs, especially those used to treat chronic conditions.
To some companies vaccine development is perceived as a gamble. Seamus Fernandez of Guggenheim Securities said, “it would have been a terrible business if the vaccine had failed. It would have been a write off”.
Obviously, this goes different to companies that succeeded in the development. Take for example Pfizer and Moderna which succeeded with its COVID-10 vaccine. Pfizer’s vaccines come at less than $20 per dose. The vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech’s collaboration is expected to bring around $15 billion with a nearly 30% profit margin by the end of 2021.
Additionally, Moderna, which is relatively new in the pharmaceutical industry, is benefitting a lot from its vaccine. Until 2019, Moderna had no approved products for sales. This year, however, Moderna managed to rake in $529 million in grant revenue. Noted from CNN, the company also recorded around $200 million from early sales of its vaccine in 2020. Moderna’s vaccine sales are expected to boost the revenue in 2021 to $16 billion. Accordingly, Moderna shares skyrocketed 187% over the last 12 months.
On another note, Johnson & Johnson pledged to provide its vaccines on a not-for-profit basis. This, however, does not mean that there is no chance for Johnson & Johnson to generate profit from its vaccines. Over time, the needs for vaccines will remain in order to boost people’s immunity from new variants of viruses.
COVID-19 vaccine: more than profits
Another significant point to note over the vaccine development rally is the public recognition gained by the pharmaceutical companies. It is unlikely for patients to remember which drugmaker produce the drugs they consume on a daily basis. Most of the times, the public only remember the name of the drugs they consume. Tinglong Dai, a business professor at Johns Hopkins Unversity, even calls the coronavirus vaccines as drug makers’ best brand development to date.
Read also: Good News: Sinovac Vaccine Tested Effective Against Corona
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