BioNTech’s 30 Billion Reasons
Commentary
The real winner in the COVID-19 vaccine sweepstakes is the German company BioNTech, not Pfizer.
Much has been made of Pfizer reaching the extraordinary mark of $100 billion in revenues in 2022, in large part undoubtedly thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and its famous COVID-19 “vaccine.” Indeed, Pfizer’s year-end earnings report shows that COVID-19 vaccine sales alone account for nearly 38 percent of those $100 billion in revenues (p. 30).
But revenues are revenues. What counts, of course, are profits. And half of the profits on its COVID-19 vaccine sales are not in fact profits for Pfizer, but rather costs. How could that be?…