- Pfizer Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1849 by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart.
- During the pandemic, it has been one of the most benefited companies thanks to the fact that it was the first to develop and market the vaccine against Covid-19.
- Only during 2021 it obtained profits of more than 81 billion dollars.
Over the last two years the pharmaceutical industry has made the biggest gains of all sectors. It seems natural when considering the health emergency and the business that the development of vaccines has involved. One of the most benefited has been Pfizer, although within everything favorable, now faces a severe problem due to an internal strike.
Origin of one of the most successful companies in the world
Like other companies in the field of health, its beginnings are quite old. The company was founded in 1849 by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart, who were originally from Germany but lived in New York. His first product was the santonin, a treatment to combat parasites of the worm family. It was an immediate success and allowed the development of other drugs.
With respect to the present, one of the greatest inventions achieved was the development of the vaccine against Covid-19. It was necessary to invest millions of dollars and speed up all the processes, but in the end it was achieved. Although conventionally it takes at least a decade, it was now possible in just under 12 months.
The first company to get it and start marketing the biological was Pfizer. According to figures from Statista, it was one of the reasons why the pharmaceutical company managed to double its profits during 2021 and achieve revenues of more than 81 billion dollars.
The two main pharmaceutical products
BNT162b2 or Comirnaty, the brand name for the vaccine, accounted for 45% of Pfizer’s revenue last year, dwarfing any other drug in the company’s vast portfolio. It developed the vaccine in cooperation with the German biotech company BioNTech, making more than 3 billion doses of the mRNA vaccine last year, which ended up adding $36.8 billion to the company’s record revenue.
By 2022, the American multinational anticipates 32 billion dollars in sales of its Comirnaty vaccine, in addition to 22 billion dollars in sales of Paxlovid, your oral antiviral medicine against Covid-19. Both estimates are based on the contracts that the laboratory had signed at the end of January, so the figures could be adjusted upwards during the year.
Pfizer employee strike
In the midst of this encouraging panorama, it is strange internal atmosphere of Pfizer generated by a strike of its workers. In this case the requirement is of the elements of the plant in Australia. The argument is that the salary increases they received are insufficient compared to the inflation of that nation.
According to reports, more than 100 workers are demanding an increase of at least 17%. For its part, the maximum offer of the pharmaceutical company was 7%, which generated the anger of the staff.
In addition to the financial issue, there is also another aspect that has caused the anger of the workers. At the request of the company, in all the plants around the world the pace of work was increased. Now the machines must run 24/7 to meet the demand for drugs that has increased in recent years.
Due to the above, now all the Pfizer elements face more exhausting and exhausting days. Instead, the only thing they have received has been a minimum salary increase that does not meet their expectations.
Also read:
Chart of the day: Pfizer earnings before and during the pandemic
GRAPH: The pharmaceutical companies with the most profits from oncology drugs
Pfizer in trouble for yacht party and firing of hundreds of employees