Pfizer topped Wall Street expectations Tuesday even as sales of its top-selling COVID-19 vaccine crumbled in the first quarter.
Revenue from Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine fell 77% to $3 billion in the first three months of the year, compared with more than $13 billion in the same stretch last year.
The drop was widely expected because the drugmaker is moving this year from supplying governments through big contracts to selling the vaccine on the commercial market.
Pfizer also is making the same shift for its market-leading COVID-19 treatment, Paxlovid, yet sales of the treatment surpassed $4 billion in the quarter.
Both the vaccine and treatment have generated billions in revenue for Pfizer over the last several quarters. But the drugmaker also produces a growing array of cancer treatments and other vaccines.
Pfizer, based in New York City, earned $5.54 billion in the first quarter, with adjusted results totaling $1.23 per share.
Revenue fell 29% to $18.3 billion.
Analysts expected earnings of 98 cents per share on $16.61 billion in sales, according to FactSet.
Pfizer also reaffirmed its forecast for full-year earnings to range between $3.25 and $3.45 per share. That forecast initially fell short of Wall Street expectations when Pfizer released it in January.
FactSet says analysts now expect earnings of $3.39 per share.
Company shares started climbing in early-morning trading.
