Demand for Covid pills is set to make Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid among the fastest-selling treatments of all time, with revenue of almost $24 billion expected in 2022, according to a forecast from analytics group Airfinity Ltd.
Overall sales of Covid pills are expected to hit $32.5 billion this year, up from a previous estimate of $19.5 billion, London-based Airfinity said Friday. Sales of pills from Merck & Co. and Shionogi & Co. are also set to rise as cases increase and earlier treatments are rendered ineffective by new variants.
After slow initial uptake, demand for the pills is expected to surge as monoclonal antibodies lose potency. Meanwhile, omicron and its subvariants such as BA.2 continue to spread, and demand for vaccines has been falling. Wealthy countries led by the U.S., U.K. and Europe are driving the pill purchases, while large parts of the world wait for generic versions.
