Drugmakers from around the world are pocketing billions from producing coronavirus vaccines. But according to experts, marginal profit may drop as companies lower prices of vaccines due to social responsibility.

As the first jab to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine leads the market in terms of quantity produced and sales profit. Pfizer made US$3.46 billion from COVID-19 jabs in the first quarter alone, accounting for 24% of its total income.

As of May 3, 430 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were shipped, while another 1.6 billion doses are expected to be delivered by the end of the year, according to contracts signed in April. The annual profit is expected to reach US$2.6 billion and will be split between the German and the U.S. drugmakers.

Moderna, the second vaccine to be approved, reported a net profit of US$1.22 billion in the first quarter from selling 100 million doses of its vaccine. It is expected to increase to up to 1 billion doses at the end of the year, bringing annual profit to US$1.92 billion.

The Chinese CoronaVac, which was recently approved by the World Health Organisation for emergency use, has supplied some 600 billion doses in China and overseas, the company announced in early June.

While Sinovac Biotech, the developer of CoronaVac, has not disclosed its finances since it stopped trading in the U.S. in 2019, Sino Biopharmaceutical Limited, which owns 15.03% shares of the company, saw a surge in profit from its investment. The Macquarie Group estimates that CoronaVac’s sales profit can reach 9.82 billion yuan (US$1.54 billion) this year.

According to the U.K. data platform, Our World in Data, AstraZeneca earns the least marginal profit, pocketing only US$4.04 per dose.

A drug industry analyst said Chinese drugmakers have two competitive edges. For one, they have a high production capacity of 6 billion doses per year and it is expected to grow at a rate that exceeds that of international firms. Despite skepticism at its efficacy rate in the early stage, Chinese vaccines have secured international acceptance and are globally competitive.

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