• by Les Luchter , December 17, 2024

President-elect Trump is “very proud of the work that was done” on the COVID vaccine during his first term in office because “he and his program [Operation Warp Speed] contributed significantly,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told analysts Tuesday morning.

Bourla spoke on a conference call in which the pharma giant revealed its 2025 financial guidance, which CFO David Denton said “assumes no material U.S policy changes” on vaccines.

Pfizer’s guidance projects 2025 revenues of $61 billion to $64 billion, the same as reaffirmed guidance for 2024 with one major caveat: this year’s figures include one-time-only revenues of $1.2 billion from the U.S. government for COVID medicine Paxlovid.

Pfizer’s COVID vaccine, meanwhile, maintains a hefty share of the total revenues – at $10 billion annually. “COVID-related variability is mainly in the past,” Denton said, and “our non-COVID vaccine products [e.g., RSV, flu] are expected to remain a key contributor to our business.” 

Bourla had dinner two weeks ago with both Trump and his choice for head of Health & Human Services, anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but in response to a question from Bank of America analyst Tim Anderson, wouldn’t comment on the latter except to say that “we developed a good relationship…If he's confirmed, we will work with him to make sure that we advance the right policies.”

Bourla cited a personal “very long-lasting relationship with President Trump, that during his first term was cemented, particularly during the Operation Warp Speed period.”

While reluctant to reveal any details of what he and Trump discussed at the dinner due to privacy, Bourla did confirm one topic that Trump has previously let out of the bag: PBMs, or the pharmacy benefit managers that serve as the price-setting intermediary between health insurance companies and pharmacies.

“The president has very strong views from his first term….that he wants transparency” as well as consumer savings, Bourla said.” it seems to me that he's very committed to make this happen.”

The PBM industry is dominated by three companies: Cigna’s Express Scripts, CVS Caremark and UnitedHealthcare’s Optum RX.