Ever wondered just how profitable the pandemic has been for those immersed in creating a vaccine to stop the monster called COVID 19?
How much are the drug companies making from the COVID 19 pandemic?
There are three primary companies that are directly involved with trying to find a cure or a vaccine to stop the spread of the worldwide pandemic from the COVID 19 virus. Each of these drug manufacturers has put in countless hours of research to find something to contain the monster that has affected everyone around the world. Let’s take a look at how their work has benefitted them.
Pfizer Is Profitable
To say that the COVID 19 vaccination has been a profitable endeavor for Pfizer is somewhat of an understatement. during the first three months of this year alone Pfizer had revenues from Covax alone of around 3.5 billion dollars. We would consider this to be a pretty good amount of revenue. Also, they would of course expect to see some profit from those revenues. This one product alone accounts for the company’s largest source of revenue.
So just how much were they expected to report as profits from this medication? How about somewhere in the range of the upper portion of 20%. Stated another way, they expected to report pretax profits in the first quarter of around $900 million.
Some argue that Pfizer should not be making these huge profits on something that is so greatly needed on a worldwide level, let alone in the United States. Pfizer on the other hand is quick to point out that during the development of this medication, they rejected funds from Operation Warp Speed. They developed this without any government assistance.
Pfizer also points out that they are committed to providing doses of vaccines to poorer countries around the world at no to very low cost. The World Health Organization points out that although this is what Pfizer has promised, their delivery has been rather minimal compared to the doses needed.
Moderna and Partner BioNTech
What about Modern and their partner BioNTech? BioNTech received generous support from the German government to help develop their vaccine with Moderna. Moderna also received taxpayer support in aid to developing their vaccine.
During the second quarter of 2021, Moderna reported that they brought in revenues of $7.84 billion from direct sales of its vaccine and revenue split with BioNTech. They reported earnings of $2.78 billion during Q2 versus a loss of $117,000.00 during the same period last year.
Johnson & Johnson Too
We also have Johnson & Johnson and their version of the Covid 19 vaccination to consider. To show just how much the vaccine is worth to their respective manufacturers we need to jump to J & J’s third quarter since the results in previous quarters were marred by questions of efficacy. So how much did they make? How about $502 million in sales for their single-dose vaccine.
We do think that it is also important to recognize that all three of these manufacturers will also benefit from the booster shots that are currently recommended for all adults who have already received their initial doses(s). It is also to be noted that the vaccine is now also being recommended for children. Where previously it was only being administered to adults. All of this comes as the virus still seems to be running rather rampant around the world. In addition, many parts of the world have few vaccines compared to the overall population. We also have the unanswered question of whether we will need a booster vaccination each year as we do with the flu shot.
How Does Wall Street Feel About Their Efforts?
It may also be worth noting the stock prices of each of these companies. This is to show just how valuable the vaccine has been to shareholders of each company. For this, we will show what the per-share price was in mid-October of 2020 and where it stands in mid-October of 2021.
- Pfizer (PFE) 2020 $35.46 2021 $42.82
- Moderna (MRNA) 2020 $71.31 2021 $333.75
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 2020 $144.55 2021 $164.10
It is noted too that PFE had a stock split during the year. On November 17, 2020, PFE shares split 1054 for 1000 thus benefitting longer-term shareholders. Also, with additional shares and value for their investment.
The COVID 19 virus has been quite profitable for those involved in creating a vaccine to help eradicate this horrible illness that has affected every corner of the world and continues to spread with new variants. Can this ever be contained? Will it keep mutating and infecting more people everywhere? No one knows the answer to this question. However, we need to keep in mind there is a lot of profit from this perpetuation.
American Innovation Wins Out
For each of these companies, we applaud you. Working in tandem with President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, you proved American innovation and tenacity win out. This is in spite of political differences and competition. However, the word hero is thrown around way too often these days. Finally, just beware of and resist those inner demons that put profit over pain.