- Pfizer executives have told investors there is an “important opportunity” to increase the price of the vaccine.
- They said that the emerging COVID variants could cope, that people might need a third dose of the vaccine.
- Regular annual “booster jabs” against COVID can also become routine.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Pfizer executives have informed the company’s investors of a ‘significant opportunity’ to increase the prices of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.
Two high-ranking Pfizer employees – CFO Frank D’Amelio and Chuck Triano, senior VP of investor relations – said at the virtual Barclays Global Healthcare Conference last week. from a pandemic condition to an endemic situation and the virus is constantly circulating in pockets around the world.
‘If you look at how current demand and current prices are driven, it is clearly not driven by what I would call normal market conditions or normal market forces … it is driven by the pandemic we are in, and the needs of governments to ensure doses from different vaccine providers, “said D’Amelio.
He added that with the resumption of “normal market conditions” over time would be an opportunity for the company to seize opportunities from a demand and price perspective.
—Lee Fang (@lhfang) 15 March 2021
The two added that to stay protected, humans need a third dose of the vaccine to boost immunity and efficacy against emerging COVID variants.
In addition to regular annual boosters, this vaccination cycle can become part of the new normal.
“We believe it is becoming increasingly likely that an annual revaccination will take place,” D’Amelio said, noting that the company does not view the pandemic or the resulting vaccinations as a “one-time event.”
The company plans to accelerate the number of vaccine doses by the end of July by increasing production and supply chain capacity.
D’Amelio said Pfizer initially had to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine to the US government by the end of March. The company is now on track to deliver 120 million doses by the end of the month and 200 million doses by May.
“For the full year, we originally said we think we can do 1.3 billion doses. We are now at 2 billion doses. And of course we are also working to improve that,” he said.