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That is a trivial conclusion. Much has been written about it. Pfizer themselves have written they estimate 67 billion dollars in revenue each year from Paxlovid
by sudosysgen 5y ago
That is a trivial conclusion. Much has been written about it. Pfizer themselves have written they estimate 67 billion dollars in revenue each year from Paxlovid, which is way more than their vaccine revenues and it's not even close. If you want my back-of-the-napkin calculation, here it is.
The cost of a generic Paxlovid course of treatment is around 40$. The cost of treatment, negotiated down by the government (and thus higher for other parties) is around 600$. So the marginal profit from a course of treatment of Paxlovid is around 540$.
On the other hand, a vaccine dose costs 20$, and it is very difficult to manufacture. A reasonable estimate of profit is 10$ per dose. This is an overestimate, because Pfizer has to share a sizeable portion of the Profit with BioNTech and other companies.
Paxlovid is indicated to be taken as early as possible - and priced so that it makes financial sense for insurance companies to pay for it to avoid the cost of hospitalization. Therefore we can expect a sizeable proportion of people with COVID symptoms to take it.
Paxlovid reduces the symptomatic illness period, so there is also a very strong incentive for individuals to take it as it allows them to be less sick. For the less fortunate, it also means less sick days to take, which may be crucial to make ends meet.
If we're expecting everyone to take a vaccine dose every six months (which we all know will never happen), that's 20$/person.year from the vaccine.
If we expect everyone to have COVID symptoms every year (which is almost certainly an underestimate), at 540$/person.year, we only need to have a 3.7% take rate for Paxlovid in order for it to generate more profit than everyone taking two doses every year (which, again, will never even come close to happening).
So as long as 3.7% of the population takes one Paxlovid course of treatment every year, Pfizer will make more profit from Paxlovid than the vaccine.
So it is trivially true that widespread COVID infection (and low vaccination numbers) is going to be Pfizer's financial incentive.
- chadash 5y ago> Pfizer themselves have written they estimate 67 billion dollars in revenue each year from Paxlovid Source? I'm seeing estimates closer to 20-35B when I google "Paxlovid revenue"
- sudosysgen 5y agoYou are right and I misread. I will edit my comment. That being said 20-35 billion are estimates for the current year, which are already close to projected revenue estimates for Pfizer (not BioNTech) from the vaccine.
- barbazoo 5y agoPaxlovid is (1) authorized for > the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 testing, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death It's not that everyone with a Covid infection will get the drug. That number should be far lower than 3.7% of the population, most of which will either be asymptomatic or likely won't require hospitalization due to low risk. I wonder what that means for your calculation. (1) https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-first-oral-antiviral-treatment-covid-19 https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavi...