Pfizer and Moderna Look to Put COVID Bust Behind Them, Add New Drug Development to Pipelines

Several drugmakers whose sales boomed on COVID-19 vaccines and related products in 2021 and 2022 have now been embroiled in a hangover throughout the year-to-date period. Declining demand for these pandemic-era products has slammed revenues at firms like Pfizer and Moderna, but the worst may now be set to pass. Pfizer’s recent revision of its revenue expectations for the year pulled $9 billion off of the table, but cleared some of the anxiety among investors who were unsure how significant falling COVID sales would be. Moderna has yet to revise its own expectations, hanging onto more optimistic projections.

Both companies, however, have undertaken more aggressive M&A strategies and formed partnerships with numerous other firms in the biotechnology and healthcare industries. Though COVID-related sales are dropping, the pipelines of Pfizer and Moderna are being re-filled with new drugs that will revive profitability in the future. Rounding the curve on COVID has been a difficult process, but it should usher in the next era of drug development for these firms.

Related ETF & Stocks: VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Moderna, Inc. (MRNA)

Manufacturers of US-approved COVID-19 vaccines, like Pfizer and Moderna, have gone through a boom and bust of pandemic-related product sales, but may finally be turning the corner on the COVID era, looking toward promising projects in their pipelines to revive their financial performance.

Pfizer, for instance, announced late last Friday that the company would be slashing its 2023 revenue projection by $9 billion due to declining demand for its COVID vaccine shots, Comirnaty, and the Paxlovid treatment. These two drugs were the primary products that pushed Pfizer to become the first company in the history of the biopharma industry to top $100 billion in sales back in 2022. A combined $57 billion in revenues were derived from Comirnaty and Paxlovid that year. CEO Albert Bourla said on Monday that just 17% of the US population to get updated COVID-19 vaccines during the current vaccination campaign, in-line with last year, but failing to retain most of the 81% of the population that received at least one dose of the COVID vaccines at some point in the past two-and-a-half years.

Pfizer also sees earnings per share plummeting to between $1.45 and $1.65, down from its previous projection of $3.25 to $3.45. While these are far from positive developments, the announcement cleared the air of uncertainty that was looming ahead of its upcoming third quarter earnings call on October 31, putting a figure on just how bad things may get for Pfizer’s projections before they start to improve. Pulling off the band-aid on COVID sales, as well as…