Pfizer execs say there's a 'significant opportunity' to hike prices of its COVID vaccine

• Pfizer execs told investors there was a "significant opportunity" to hike the price of its vaccine.
• They said to cope with emerging COVID variants, people may need a third dose of the vaccine.
• Regular yearly "booster jabs" against COVID may also become routine.

Pfizer execs have informed the company's investors of a "significant opportunity" to hike the prices of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Speaking at the virtual Barclays Global Healthcare Conference last week, two high-ranking Pfizer employees - CFO Frank D'Amelio and Chuck Triano, senior VP of investor relations - said there would be a chance for Pfizer to raise prices for the vaccine when COVID moves from a pandemic state to an endemic situation and the virus circulates continually in pockets around the globe.

"If you look at how current demand and current pricing is being driven, it's clearly not being driven by what I'll call normal market conditions or normal market forces... it's been driven by the pandemic state we've been in, and the needs of governments to secure doses from various vaccine suppliers," said D'Amelio.

He added that with the resumption of "normal market conditions" over time, there would then be a chance for the company to take advantage of opportunities from "a demand...and pricing perspective."

The two added that to stay protected, people may need a third dose of the vaccine to bolster immunity and efficacy against emerging COVID variants.

In addition to regular yearly boosters, this vaccination cycle may become part of the new normal.

"We believe it's becoming increasingly likely that an annual re-vaccination is going to take place," said D'Amelio, noting that the company did not see the pandemic or the resulting vaccination drives as a "onetime event."

The company is planning to accelerate the number of vaccine doses it can deliver by the end of July by ramping up production and supply chain capabilities.

D'Amelio said Pfizer was initially supposed to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine to the US government by the end of March. The company is now on track to deliver 120 million doses by the end of the month and 200 million doses by May.

"For the full year, we had originally said we thought we could do 1.3 billion doses. We're now at 2 billion doses. And obviously, we're working to improve upon that number as well," he said.