Pfizer Contrast One company that has had fewer production problems this year is Moderna’s vaccine rival Pfizer Inc., which partners with BioNTech SE.
Pfizer has already produced 2.6 billion doses and shipped 2 billion of them this year. Earlier this week it raised its 2021 forecast for vaccine sales to $36 billion, with plans to produce 4 billion doses next year.
Unlike Moderna, giant companies like Pfizer have existing factories to turn to, long-term relationships with an extensive base of suppliers, as well as numerous supply-chain experts to plan for every possible contingency when production runs into unexpected snags, said Julie Swann, a health systems expert at North Carolina State University.