As Delta spreads, Pfizer and Moderna get set for a booster shot to profits
Praised for preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths and allowing a return to more normal life, Covid vaccines will also substantially benefit some pharmaceutical companies.
In June, analysts estimated the global market for the vaccines could be worth $70bn (£50bn) this year, but the figure could be even higher as the Delta variant of coronavirus spreads and scientists debate whether people will need booster shots.
On Thursday Moderna, which received US government funding to develop its vaccine, will reveal how much it made in the second quarter. It forecast 2021 revenues of $19.2bn from the vaccine in May, but that estimate could rise this week.
With fellow US company Pfizer it will take the lion’s share of global Covid vaccine profits. The firms are charging $30-plus a person for the required two shots in Europe and the US, while Britain’s biggest drugmaker, AstraZeneca, and the US’s Johnson & Johnson (J&J) have pledged to provide theirs on a not-for-profit basis until the pandemic ends. [Continue reading…]