PremiumPfizer reported its net income in 2021 at nearly $22 billion, more than double the figure for 2020. Revenue surged 95% to $81.3 billion, boosted by the covid vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech. It now expects its new oral covid pill, Paxlovid, to deliver big bucks in 2022. Its shareholders are pleased
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Among the covid pandemic’s side-effects has been an uptick in cynicism about capitalism, fanned by such news bytes as Pfizer’s profit. The American pharmaceutical major reported its net income in 2021 at nearly $22 billion, more than double the figure for 2020. Revenue surged 95% to $81.3 billion, boosted by the covid vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech. It churned out over 3 billion doses of its mRNA jab last year and can now expect its new oral covid pill, Paxlovid, to deliver big bucks in 2022. Its shareholders are pleased.
So should the rest of us, given Pfizer’s role in helping the world quell the pandemic with its mRNA vaccine effort. Its jab was motivated by profit, no doubt. Shareholders’ capital was risked, and its bet came good. Sure, its partner got $445 million from the German state for vaccine innovation, as reported, and Pfizer got a conditional bulk-buy promise from the American government’s Warp Speed incentive scheme. Even so, the global benefits of the duo’s response to the big viral outbreak have outweighed that subsidy. And as Oscar Wilde once said, a cynic is aware of the price of everything and the value of nothing.
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