Pfizer

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Pfizer’s role in responding to COVID-19 has returned it to the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry—and helped it climb 34 spots on the Fortune 500 this year. As of April 2022, approximately 3.3 billion Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines had been shipped to 179 countries, and some 338 million doses had been administered in the U.S. alone. From 2020 to 2021 its revenue nearly doubled, to $81.3 billion, with the vaccine accounting for the bulk of that gain. Pfizer’s oral antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID by about 90%, is likely to join the vaccine in boosting its bottom line: As of April 2022, the Biden administration has committed to purchasing 20 million treatment courses of Paxlovid.