Pfizer Goes It Alone to Expand Vaccine Business Beyond Covid-19 Pandemic

“There is a technology that has proven dramatic impact and dramatic potential,” Mr. Bourla said. “We are the best positioned company right now to take it to the next step because of our size and our expertise.”

Pfizer will increase R&D; in the technology, including adding at least 50 employees whose assignments will include mRNA, and it will harness the new mRNA manufacturing network it assembled in the past year to compete.

“We are now ahead and we plan to maintain the gap,” he said of the mRNA vaccine market.

Mr. Bourla declined to say which viruses Pfizer is pursuing and to comment on future vaccine sales. He hopes that mRNA can also be effective in areas where existing vaccines have uncomfortable side effects or provide subpar protection.

Pfizer’s ambitions in mRNA are just one way that the pandemic is poised to permanently change the healthcare industry. People’s embrace of telemedicine as they sheltered in place—which helped providers care for those in rural areas and reduced the need for patients to visit hospitals—is another. Analysts also expect home delivery of prescription drugs to endure.

Pfizer’s vaccine business already includes one of the world’s top-selling shots, pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13, which last year had almost $6 billion in sales. A next-generation pneumonia shot is under review by regulators with a decision expected this summer, and the company has other vaccines in the works.

More vaccines could reduce Pfizer’s reliance for growth on its cancer drugs, which now make up about one-quarter of sales and a third of the New York-based company’s overall product pipeline.

A stronger vaccine unit could also help Pfizer compete with rivals such as the U.K.’s GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Sanofi SA of France, both of which have larger vaccine businesses. Global vaccine sales are forecast to total more than $64 billion in 2026, nearly double last year’s total, according to market-research firm Evaluate Ltd.

Success in vaccines is challenging because they usually take more than a decade to develop, with many failing during testing. Moreover, mRNA technology is unproven beyond Covid-19, and competitors such as Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna Inc. have more experience with it.

With mRNA vaccines, molecules carry instructions to cells for making proteins, which then train the immune system to defend against a pathogen. Most vaccines traditionally use a weakened or inactive part of a virus to trigger an immune response.

Pfizer’s first foray into the technology came in 2018 when it partnered with BioNTech to make an influenza vaccine based on the German firm’s mRNA platform. The partnership led to the companies’ Covid-19 collaboration a year ago, following on BioNTech’s initial work on the vaccine. Pfizer came on board to accelerate development, manufacturing and distribution.

The two companies will continue to collaborate on Covid-19 shots. But now after completing crucial steps such as designing and conducting clinical trials and securing specialized raw materials for manufacturing, Pfizer is confident it can do mRNA vaccines alone, Mr. Bourla said.

“We like working with BioNTech, but we don’t need to work with BioNTech,” he said. “We have our own expertise developed.”

When the flu-shot partnership with BioNTech ends in July, Pfizer will take over R&D; and manufacturing, and continue to have rights to commercialize the vaccine. Its partner already transferred certain technical information to Pfizer, Mr. Bourla said. Until the contract ends, Pfizer also has the right of first negotiation for BioNTech’s platform for vaccines against cytomegalovirus and respiratory syncytial virus, both of which can cause flu-like symptoms and, in some cases, serious illness.

“We consider it a great acknowledgment for mRNA technologies that companies such as our partner Pfizer are getting involved into building their own mRNA vaccine strategy,” a BioNTech spokeswoman said.

Pfizer’s new mRNA-focused scientists will work out of its facility in Pearl River, N.Y., about an hour’s drive from the company’s Manhattan headquarters. Pfizer centralized its vaccine research there in 2019.

Mr. Bourla said the high-stakes bet to pursue a Covid-19 vaccine—and to do so without government funding—validates his decision for Pfizer to rely on its own pipeline for growth. Pfizer has increased R&D; spending by 21% since Mr. Bourla took the helm in early 2019.

Key to making mRNA vaccines is sufficient manufacturing capacity, and Pfizer built a bespoke production network. Making mRNA vaccines requires special equipment and raw materials that weren’t widely available prior to the pandemic. Pfizer scientists learned how to produce key ingredients for the shot that they once relied on suppliers to obtain.

Another reason for committing to mRNA, Mr. Bourla said, is that Pfizer anticipates producing the Covid-19 shots for at least several years on the expectation that booster shots will be needed annually or every few years to maintain protection.

The global market for Covid-19 vaccines would be worth more than $15 billion beginning in 2023 if annual shots are needed, Bernstein Research estimates.

Pfizer, which is splitting Covid-19 vaccine profit evenly with BioNTech, has said it expects roughly $15 billion in sales from the vaccine this year.

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecast more than $10 billion in sales for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot next year, and $2.4 billion in 2025.

Vaccines drew renewed interest from Wall Street with their potential to end the pandemic, especially after Moderna and Pfizer vaccines showed strong efficacy against the coronavirus. Vaccines typically have lower margins than other pharmaceuticals such cancer or rheumatoid arthritis drugs.

Pfizer also has shots in the works using older vaccine technologies. One that aims to prevent a certain type of colon infection is in late-stage testing, as is one for preventing respiratory syncytial virus in infants by vaccinating the expectant mother. It is also developing a vaccine with French biotech Valneva SE for Lyme disease.

Mr. Bourla hopes Pfizer can develop future vaccines in less than a year, mirroring the progress of the Covid-19 vaccine, but said that would be tough without the unorthodox development steps taken during the pandemic, or regulators changing how they work.

Still, he said Pfizer would start manufacturing some experimental products before they prove to work safely, as it did with the Covid-19 vaccine, which could bring products to patients quicker.

Write to Jared S. Hopkins at jared.hopkins@wsj.com