The various Covid-19 vaccines currently being distributed around the globe have the potential to end the worst pandemic in a century. They also will mean hundreds of billions dollars in sales for the pharmaceutical companies that make them.
Despite being priced at less than $20 per dose, Pfizer (PFE) expects sales of the vaccine it developed with BioNTech (BNTX) to total about $15 billion by the end of this year, with a profit margin of nearly 30%.
Vaccines are typically not the most profitable products in the Big Pharma catalog, especially compared to drugs used to treat chronic conditions.
“Flu vaccines on balance are a lower margin business,” said Seamus Fernandez, senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities. There are of course exceptions — including the Prevnar vaccine that protects the elderly from pneumococcal pneumonia, which Fernandez describes as “extremely lucrative” for Pfizer. And the drug maker’s Covid vaccine is likely to be an even a bigger money…