(Reuters) – The American pharmaceutical group Pfizer announced on Tuesday its first quarterly loss since 2019, due to a charge of 5.6 billion dollars (around 5.3 billion euros) linked to its COVID-19 products, such as the antiviral treatment Paxlovid and the Comirnaty vaccine.
Paxlovid sales fell 97% in the quarter to $202 million, while vaccine revenue was $1.31 billion, down from $4.4 billion l ‘last year.
Sales of the anti-COVID pill and the vaccine manufactured in partnership with the German BioNTech had enabled Pfizer to post record results over the past two years.
Earlier this month, Pfizer slashed its 2023 sales forecast by $9 billion after agreeing to take back nearly 8 million Paxlovid treatments from the U.S. government.
The company also announced a $3.5 billion cost-cutting program due to falling demand for its products linked to the pandemic.
Pfizer reported a loss of $0.42 per share in the third quarter, compared to a profit of $1.51 per share in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue fell to $13.23 billion from $22.64 billion a year earlier.
(Report Bhanvi Satija, Stéphanie Hamel, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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