Pfizer expects to make nearly as much revenue just from COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 as it earned in all of 2020

• Pfizer expects to make nearly as much money from vaccines in 2021 as it earned in total in 2020.
• The drugmaker expects vaccine sales to rake in $36 billion this year.

Pfizer expects to make nearly as much revenue just from COVID-19 vaccine sales alone in 2021 as it earned in all of 2020, the drugmaker said on Tuesday.

The company said it expects revenue from the vaccines to be $36 billion by the end of 2021, up from an estimated $33.5 billion the company had predicted earlier in the year.

In 2020, it brought in $41.9 billion in revenue.

Pfizer is the first and only COVID-19 vaccine approved in the US, and the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 last week, making it the first to be available to younger children.

Pfizer reached agreements with governments worldwide in 2020 and 2021 to distribute its vaccine. The company said Tuesday that it expects to deliver 2.3 billion doses of the shot globally by the end of the year.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 247 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered since the pandemic began.

But nearly a year since the launch of large-scale vaccination rollouts, pharmaceutical companies continue to face allegations of corporate greed.

Mistrust of Big Pharma may be influencing vaccine skepticism among Americans, experts told Insider's Allana Akhtar.

Pfizer has faced backlash from activists - including Amnesty International - who accuse the company of putting its bottom line over people's wellbeing.

In a statement Tuesday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company will donate 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the US government for a "not-for-profit price" so they can be donated to developing nations around the world.