New York (AFP)

The more the months go by, the more the sales counters panic for Pfizer.

The laboratory plans to sell this year for 33.5 billion dollars of vaccines against Covid-19 developed in partnership with the German BioNTech.

That's far more than the $ 26 billion the group said it was banking on in May, and even more than the $ 15 billion estimated in February.

For comparison, the American pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson, which has also developed a vaccine against the coronavirus, anticipates $ 2.5 billion in revenue from its serum against the virus this year.

In addition to the resounding success of the alliance between Pfizer and BioNTech, its competitors Johnson & Johnson like AstraZeneca, for their part, have undertaken to sell their vaccine at cost during the time of the pandemic.

"The speed and effectiveness of our efforts with BioNTech to help vaccinate the world against Covid-19 is unprecedented, with now more than a billion doses delivered globally," responded Wednesday on Group CEO Albert Bourla quoted in the second quarter financial results release.

Thanks to the vaccination campaigns that are being implemented around the world, the group is increasing the number of contracts, for 2.1 billion doses in total.

One of the latest is the US order for 200 million additional doses on Friday, bringing its purchases for the US domestic market to 500 million.

Sales could grow further, as Pfizer / BioNTech advocates a third dose of its vaccine to make it more effective, at a time when the highly contagious Delta variant is causing epidemic outbreaks in Asia and Africa and pushing up the number of cases in Europe and in the USA.

This variant, which initially appeared in India, is the most contagious listed since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, which has killed more than 4.17 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Wednesday at 10:00 GMT.

- Third dose?

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"New studies show that a third dose has neutralizing effects against the Delta variant more than five times higher in young people and more than eleven times in older people after two doses," said the company on Wednesday, which plans to publish more detailed data in the coming weeks.

The alliance evoked in early July "encouraging results" of trials for a third dose and planned to seek authorization in the United States and Europe.

In the second quarter alone and on all of its activities, the group achieved a turnover of 18.9 billion dollars, almost double a year earlier (+ 92%) and above expectations of analysts who expected $ 18.45 billion.

Quarterly net income rose 59% to $ 5.5 billion.

Reported by shares, the benchmark on Wall Street, it is 99 cents, again above expectations which were 96 cents.

On the strength of its rising sales, the company has logically raised its forecasts for annual turnover and profits.

It now anticipates for the whole of 2021 a turnover of between 78 billion and 80 billion dollars, against 70.5 billion to 72.5 billion dollars in May, carried by its sales of anti-vaccines. Covid who have already grossed $ 11.3 billion in the first six months of the year.

Earnings per share could for its part grow from $ 3.95 to $ 4.05, against $ 3.55 to $ 3.65 initially expected.

Pfizer's share price was at breakeven in trades before Wall Street opened.

© 2021 AFP