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Pfizer shares fell on Thursday after a report said the US drug maker expects to ship half of the Covid-19 vaccines it originally planned for this year due to supply chain issues .
The Wall Street Journal, citing a person directly involved in the development, said some first batches of raw materials needed for the vaccine did not meet standards. Pfizer now plans to ship 50 million vaccines by the end of the year, up from the original 100 million it hoped to send, according to the Journal.
“Several factors have impacted the number of estimated doses available in 2020,” Pfizer said in a statement. “On the one hand, scaling up a vaccine at this rate is unprecedented, and we’ve made significant progress as we move into the unknown.
The company has repeatedly stated publicly that it plans to ship 50 million doses of vaccine this year and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. Still, Pfizer shares have fallen by over 2% in intraday trading on Thursday before closing over 1% after the report released. In extended trading, the stock, which has a market value of $ 223 billion, fell less than 1%.
The report also caused a late liquidation in the market in general.
Pfizer said Thursday that scaling up the raw material supply chain has taken longer than expected. It has also been delayed by its efforts to produce vaccines for clinical trials. The company said its large-scale production lines in the United States and Europe are now complete and that it is “confident” that it will be able to deliver the targeted doses.
Vaccines may contain preservatives to prevent contamination, sterile water, virus genetic material and other ingredients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pfizer, which works alongside German drug maker BioNTech, applied for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its coronavirus vaccine on November 20. Its vaccine uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology. It’s a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to elicit an immune response.
Pfizer’s vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, Moderna said its vaccine remained stable at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a standard home or medical refrigerator, for up to 30 days. It can be stored for up to six months at less than 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was backing the “first mass air shipment” of vaccine last week. The company plans to ship frozen vials of the vaccine to vaccination points from its sites in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Puurs, Belgium.
Pfizer announced on July 22 that the United States had agreed to purchase 100 million doses of its vaccine for a maximum of $ 1.95 billion. The deal, which is part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccination program, allows the United States to acquire an additional 500 million doses of vaccine.
The UK cleared Pfizer’s vaccine on Wednesday, becoming the first country to do so.
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