Pfizer quarterly sales surge to record high, driven by Covid vaccine and antiviral treatment Paxlovid

Pfizer's second-quarter revenue and profit beat Wall Street expectations, driven by sales of its Covid-19 vaccine and its antiviral treatment Paxlovid.

Pfizer booked $27.7 billion in revenue, a 47% increase over the same period last year and its largest quarterly sales on record. The pharmaceutical company reported $9.9 billion in net income, a 78% increase over the second quarter of 2021.

Here's how the company performed compared with what Wall Street expected for the second quarter, based on analysts' average estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

Pfizer's Covid vaccine brought in $8.8 billion in revenue for the second quarter, while sales of Paxlovid totaled $8.1 billion. The company maintained its 2022 sales guidance for the vaccine of $32 billion and is still expecting $22 billion for Paxlovid.

Pfizer also largely reiterated its overall 2022 revenue and earnings guidance. Pfizer is expecting $98 billion to $102 billion in sales this year and earnings per share of $6.30 to $6.45. The company raised the lower end of its earnings guidance by 5 cents.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech inked a $3.2 billion deal in June to provide 105 million vaccine doses to the U.S. government ahead of an expected fall vaccination campaign. The order may include updated shots that target omicron and its subvariants. The U.S. has the option to purchase another 195 million doses.

The companies said delivery of the shots could begin as soon as late summer with shipments continuing through the fourth quarter.

The Food and Drug Administration has told the vaccine makers to start developing shots that target the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which are now dominant in the U.S. BA.4 and BA.5 have caused a wave of summer infection because they are more transmissible than past variants.

Public health officials are worried that the U.S. will face a major wave of Covid infection this fall as immunity from the vaccines wanes and people head indoors to escape the colder weather. Scientists and health officials hope that updated shots that also target omicron will provide more durable protection this fall.