Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) reported Tuesday first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates and reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance as the drugmaker works to develop a vaccine to prevent the coronavirus.
The drugmaker reported adjusted earnings of 80 cents per share, seven cents higher than Wall Street analysts expected. The company’s total sales dropped 8% from a year ago to $12 billion, which was higher than the $11.8 billion expected by analysts.
On an unadjusted basis, the company’s profit for the first three months of the year dropped 12% to $3.4 billion from $3.88 billion a year ago.
Pfizer, working alongside German firm BioNTech, said it is taking steps to accelerate coronavirus vaccine development and scale up manufacturing as it looks to begin human trials by the end of this month.
The company’s experimental vaccine contains genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA. The mRNA instructs the body’s own cellular mechanisms for making proteins to make those that mimic the virus proteins, thereby producing an immune response.
It estimates it can potentially produce "millions" of coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of this year and "hundreds of millions of doses" in 2021 if the vaccine is successful.
The effort by Pfizer is one of several working on a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19, which has infected more than three million people worldwide and killed at least 211,000 as of Tuesday morning, according to data compiled by Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University.
As the company works to develop a vaccine, it has had to delay recruitment for its other ongoing clinical trials. Pfizer said Tuesday it began to resume some clinical trials, including using virtual data collection where possible.
Shares improved 25 cents to $38.58
