The U.S. drugmaker said it is seeking to sign more vaccine deals with countries, which could drive sales even higher next year. It has the capacity to produce 4 billion doses in 2022 and has based its projections on sales of 1.7 billion doses.

Still, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said he was concerned that low- and middle-income countries would not place orders for next year's vaccine doses early enough, and could again end up behind wealthier countries.

"The high-income countries, they have the tendency to be way more proactive, and they are placing their orders," Bourla said in an interview. "I want to make sure that I go on record publicly... they need to place orders, period."

Pfizer said it expects to deliver at least one billion doses of its vaccine to low- and middle- income countries next year.

The vaccine brought in sales of $13 billion in the third quarter. The company splits gross profit from sales of the shot in most of the world with BioNTech.