A Covid Vaccine-Sized Hole in Pfizer's Revenue

Representing a Covid vaccine-sized hole, Pfizer reported a 29 percent y-o-y drop in revenue in Q1 2023. The company's vaccine Comirnaty and its oral Covid treatment medication Paxlovid accounted for $7.1 billion in revenue in the first three months of 2023 - down from the $14.7 billion in the same period last year (13.2 of which came from Comirnaty)

Commenting on the decrease, David Denton, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Pfizer, said: “Our first-quarter results were in line with our expectations, underlining our continued confidence in achieving 7 percent to 9 percent operational revenue growth for fiscal-year 2023, excluding our Covid-19 products and anticipated foreign exchange impacts."

As this infographic illustrates, when removing the two Covid-related products from the picture, as well as the negative impact of foreign exchange rates to the tune of $730 million, Pfizer saw modest revenue growth of 5 percent.