Hey Pfizer, get on the stick and develop some new COVID variants!

Yes, they also make Paxlovid! But, that's not sufficient to keep the money train rolling. Guys...it's show time. Either you need to get our friends in China to fire up another virus or you're going to have to mutate the thing yourself and sell the antidote?

Assuming you're aware of the Pfizer director who admits on camera their considering mutating COVID to sell new vaccines. Yes? See below if not. Are they actually doing that? Probably not. Did their original vaccine help save our country during the early lethal stages of COVID. Yes! Do I trust these guys now? Surrrrrrrreeeee.

Pfizer Expects Drop in Revenue as Covid Vaccine Demand Wanes

Drugmaker says in earnings report it anticipates return in growth for Covid-products in 2024

Pfizer will turn to its approved drugs and those in the pipeline to drive growth.

By Jared S. Hopkins and Dean Seal, WSJ

Updated Jan. 31, 2023 2:49 pm ET

Pfizer Inc. PFE -0.88%decrease; red down pointing triangle expects revenue to drop by as much as a third in 2023 as demand for its Covid-19 vaccine and treatment declines and countries adjust to a new phase of managing the virus.

Pfizer is projecting revenue this year of between $67 billion and $71 billion, falling from last year’s approximate $100 billion, a record high for the company, the New York-based drug company said Tuesday. Stripping out Covid-19 products, Pfizer expects its 2023 revenue to grow 7% to 9%.

“2022 was by all standards the best year ever in the history of the company but the best days of Pfizer are ahead of us,” Chief Executive Albert Bourla said Tuesday.

The company said revenue from Covid-19 products is expected to reach a low point this year due to a significant government stockpile on hand and then rebound in 2024.

Fourth-quarter revenue was up 2% at $24.29 billion, buoyed by growth in the company’s primary-care business. Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting $24.39 billion.

The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer, which it developed with BioNTech SE, became the most-used pandemic shot, with the company shipping billions of doses to more than 130 countries. The Covid-19 pill Paxlovid also became an important tool to keep some patients out of the hospital.

Yet demand for the vaccine has declined as countries adjust to different phases of the pandemic and fewer people get booster doses. The U.S. plans to transition to the typical commercial sales from U.S. government purchases of the vaccine, and this week the White House said it was planning to end the public-health emergency in May.

Pfizer expects the Covid-19 vaccine, called Comirnaty, to generate $13.5 billion in sales this year, nearly one-third of the $37.8 billion in sales last year, the company said.

Dr. Bourla said Pfizer this year expects about one-quarter of the U.S. population will receive Covid-19 vaccine doses, down from the one-third who got doses last year. The drop is due to fewer primary vaccinations and declining compliance with public-health recommendations, he added. Pfizer expects to hold on to its 64% market share, forecasting that about 65 million doses of its vaccine will be administered in 2023.

The company said that should Pfizer develop—and regulators approve—a combo flu-Covid vaccine, Covid-19 vaccination rates will rebound starting in 2025, both in the U.S. and abroad. A combination shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, based on the mRNA technology used for the Covid-19 shots, is under study in an early-stage clinical trial. Pfizer expects regulators will require a Phase 3 study based on immunogenicity and safety, not a large trial assessing efficacy, said Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten.

Pfizer’s vaccination rate projections are based on the virus continuing to behave in a similar way to the past six to nine months, without more severe strains emerging, Dr. Bourla said. He added that the projections are based on the assumption that vaccine uptake will remain high among those who are at high risk of developing severe disease and those eager to get boosted.

“The assumption is that Covid will not disappear,” said Dr. Bourla.

Pfizer expects Paxlovid to generate about $8 billion in sales this year, down from about $18.9 billion last year. The company expects the drug will still be in demand because of infections rising 2% annually, but said that governments currently have stockpiles. Dr. Bourla said Pfizer isn’t expecting potentially new antivirals from other manufacturers to be introduced in the U.S. until at least 2024.

In China, where demand for Paxlovid is high, Pfizer expects to ship millions of courses through March. It expects sales through March will be administered via China’s government reimbursement program.

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine has become the most-used pandemic shot.

PHOTO: AMIR HAMJA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Dr. Bourla also said that Pfizer expects to offer the drug on the private market after April 1, unless it becomes included on the country’s national reimbursement list. Under Pfizer’s tiered pricing strategy, in which poor countries pay the least and rich countries pay more, China will continue to pay as a middle-income country, he said.

With Covid-19 sales declining, the company will turn to its approved drugs and those in the pipeline to drive growth.

Pfizer expects to launch in the coming months several new products in development, including an RSV vaccine for older adults, as well as treatments for cancer and hair loss. The company has already rolled out Cibinqo, a drug to treat atopic dermatitis.

Pfizer is 40% closer to meeting a goal of adding $25 billion in revenue from business-development moves such as mergers and acquisitions by 2030, David Denton, the company’s chief financial officer, said. The plan is to help offset a drop of roughly $17 billion in sales from patent expirations.

Mr. Denton said that recent acquisitions of Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. and Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. added approved drugs to the company’s portfolio, though there are few other companies with approved products. As a result, he said Pfizer’s search will skew toward assets in early to mid-stage development.

For the quarter, sales of pneumonia vaccine Prevnar grew by about one-third from a year ago to $1.7 billion, as Pfizer rolled out a new version of the shot for adults.

Meanwhile, sales for breast-cancer drug Ibrance fell 8% to about $1.3 billion, while arthritis treatment Xeljanz fell in sales by about one-third to $493 million.

The pharma company posted a profit of $5 billion, or 87 cents a share, compared with $3.39 billion, or 59 cents a share, last year. Adjusted earnings, which strip out the impact of one-time items, came in at $1.14 a share, above analyst expectations of $1.05 a share.

Rival vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson reported a 25% fourth-quarter earnings shortfall last week as the stronger dollar and weakening demand for its Covid-19 vaccine pushed sales lower.

Pfizer expects to spend between $12.4 billion and $13.4 billion on research and development in the year ahead, compared with $11.4 billion in adjusted R&D expenses in 2022.

After logging $80 billion in global sales from Covid-19 vaccines, Pfizer was among the big pharmaceutical companies that sought to boost revenue through acquisitions of proven drugmakers. The company aims to reach $25 billion in revenue from business-development moves such as deal making by 2030.

Shares were slightly up at $43.69 in afternoon trading.

Write to Jared S. Hopkins at jared.hopkins@wsj.com and Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com