Pfizer quarterly sales surge to record high, driven by Covid vaccine and antiviral treatment Paxlovid

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment pill Paxlovid is seen in boxes, at Misericordia hospital in Grosseto, Italy, February 8, 2022.

Sales of the Covid-19 vaccine and Paxlovid drove Pfizer's second-quarter revenue and profit higher than expected.

Pfizer booked $28.7 billion in revenue, a 47% increase over the same period last year and its largest quarterly sales on record. The company's net income increased by 80% in the second quarter of 2020.

Wall Street expected the company to perform better in the second quarter than it did.

• Adjusted EPS: $2.04 per share, vs $1.78 expected
• Revenues: $27.7 billion, vs. $25.7 billion

In the second quarter, Pfizer's Covid vaccine brought in almost $9 billion in revenue, while Paxlovid brought in almost $8 billion. The company still expects to sell $22 billion of Paxlovid in 2022.

Pfizer's revenue and earnings guidance was mostly unchanged. Earnings per share are expected to be between $6.30 and $6.45 this year. The earnings guidance was raised by 5 cents.

In June, Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech signed a $3.2 billion deal to provide 105 million vaccine doses to the US government. The shots that are included in the order target omicron. Another 195 million doses can be purchased by the U.S.

Delivery of the shots could begin as early as late summer with shipments continuing through the fourth quarter, according to the companies.

The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have caused a wave of summer infections in the US because they are more trans.

Public health officials are worried that the U.S. will face a large wave of Covid infections this fall as immunity from the vaccine fades. This fall, scientists and health officials hope that updated shots will provide more protection.