By Manas Mishra

(Reuters.) Tuesday’s news for investors: Investors hope to gain insight Pfizer Inc (NYSE) plans to infuse once-in-a generation cash from COVID-19 vaccines and treatments in 2022. Some are looking to the drugmaker for deals.

According to Albert Bourla, Chief Executive of Pfizer, 2021 Pfizer sales will surpass $80 billion. This is the highest annual total ever recorded by the company. As production of Pfizer’s Paxlovid oral antiviral medication increases, analysts expect that revenue will rise to $100 billion by 2022.

American drugmaker, 173 years old, expects to sell $36 billion 2021 and $29 billion 2022 for COVID-19 vaccine that it developed in collaboration with BioNTech SE of Germany (NASDAQ:).

Pfizer stated that it book profit at the highest 20 percent of its vaccine revenues.

Paxlovid is also expected to be a success. It has been approved in Canada, the UK, and Europe.

On average, analysts have predicted sales in excess of $23 billion for this year. Pfizer is expected to produce 120 million Paxlovids courses in 2022, and the U.S. contract will cover just one-fifth of that amount.

Expect high profit margins.

What are they going to do with all that cash? Vamil Divan from Mizuho, a Mizuho analyst, said that Pfizer might need to acquire new experimental drugs in order to take over sales of those with lost patent protection.

Is the future growth from vaccine and Paxlovid or is it buying other things to increase their supply? Divan stated that they want them to do more to expand their pipeline.

Pfizer’s profit increase comes at the right time to deal. In the last 12 months, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index has fallen more than 21%.

“There was very little M&A in biotech last year and that’s one of the things that held the sector back. Biotech investors expect and are hoping that it picks up this year, and we think Pfizer is going to be a major driver of M&A,” said healthcare investor Brad Loncar.

Pfizer purchased Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc in 2021 for $6.7 Billion cash. Trillium Therapeutics, a cancer drug developer (NASDAQ:), was also bought by Pfizer for $2.3 Billion.

Pfizer could also take additional steps to reward shareholders.

“They’ve had such a flood of money come in that there might be a component of buybacks or dividend to Pfizer’s capital deployment, but the main event will be M&A,” Loncar said.

Pfizer has a dividend yield of around 3%, which is comparable to its nearly 2% for the index.

Pfizer shares rose more than 50% over the last 12 months, surpassing the 17% gain in that time. Pfizer shares were trading in the $44 range for many years prior to the pandemic.