J&J suspends COVID-19 vaccine sales forecast

Johnson & Johnson is suspending sales forecasts for its COVID-19 vaccine only a few months after saying the shot could bring in as much as $3.5 billion this year.

A global supply surplus and uncertainty about future demand — fuelled in part by vaccine hesitancy in some developing markets — prompted the change, J&J said Tuesday.

The company also reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit and announced a dividend increase.

J&J's one-shot vaccine brought in US$457 million in global sales during the first quarter, while the company's pharmaceutical sales as a whole totalled nearly US$13 billion.

The vaccine registered only US$75 million in sales in the U.S., or about 25 per cent less than what it rang up after debuting in last year's first quarter.

J&J has said it doesn't intend to profit from the vaccine.

But it said in January that the shot could bring in between US$3 billion and US$3.5 billion in sales this year, as countries continue to fight variants of the virus.

Demand for initial vaccine doses and booster shots has slowed since shots from J&J, Pfizer and Moderna entered the U.S. market last year.

More than 82 per cent of the U.S. population age 5 and older has already received at least one vaccination dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us @onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com