The world knows mRNA Covid shots have failed

Now Pfizer and Moderna shareholders know it too

All Travis Kelce’s grinning can’t save mRNA.

This morning, Pfizer disappointed investors by saying it expects sales of its mRNA Covid jab to plunge again in 2024. Annual sales of Pfizer’s shot and anti-Covid drug Paxlovid will fall 35 percent next year - on the heels of an 80 percent collapse this year.

The announcement is an embarrassment for Pfizer executives, marking the third time in only three months they have had to rachet down expectations for Covid sales.

Investors expect public companies to be able to predict their sales at least six months to a year in advance. But collapsing mRNA demand keeps catching Pfizer off-guard.

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(Meanwhile, demand for Unreported Truths remains strong. Yours for under 20 cents a day. Or give it as a Christmas present! The truth is the gift that keeps on giving.)

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The fall comes despite a clever ad campaign featuring Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end (now best-known as Taylor Swift’s beau).

Kelce’s “two things at once” spot encourages people to take both flu and Covid jabs at the same doctor’s visit - unsubtly linking the mRNAs with old-style inactivated virus flu shots, which have far fewer side effects.

But would-be recipients have not been fooled. While mRNA demand has collapsed, demand for flu shots remains solid (despite strong evidence of their uselessness).

Only two years ago, the mRNAs were among the world’s most desirable products, and hipsters proudly branded themselves “Team Pfizer” or “Team Moderna.”

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(The jab doesn’t love you back, sweetheart.)

SOURCE

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Now the bloom is far off the mRNA rose.

In 2022, Pfizer reported jab sales of $38 billion - the highest annual sales ever recorded for any pharmaceutical industry product - along with Paxlovid sales of $19 billion, for a total of $57 billion in Covid loot.

Next year, it expects sales of $8 billion for the two products. Even that 85 percent drop underestimates the decline in how many doses of each will be given, because Pfizer is charging far more for them now than it did in 2022.

Despite what can only be called a coordinated government-media propaganda campaign to press the shots, along with Pfizer’s and Moderna’s own ads, people simply do not want these jabs.

Investors have noticed. Pfizer shares closed at $26.72 today - down almost 7 percent today and 50 percent this year, and a five-year low.

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(Looks like Pfizer could use a little Viagra…)

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With the Covid loot largely gone, Pfizer now plans to cut its annual expenses by $4 billion, a target that will likely result in thousands of layoffs.

But shed no tears for Pfizer chief executive Dr. Albert Bourla (full disclosure: I have sued Bourla in Berenson v Biden, my lawsuit over my Twitter ban and censorship). His 2023 pay has not yet been disclosed, but Bourla made about $33 million in 2022, up from $24 million in 2021.

Nice work if you can get it.