London, Feb 10 (BUS): AstraZeneca posted a big jump in revenue on Thursday as it began making profits from its coronavirus vaccine for the first time, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The company reported full-year revenue of $37.4 billion, an increase of 38% over the previous year at constant exchange rates. Part of the boost came from sales of a $4 billion COVID-19 vaccine developed in collaboration with Oxford University.
Despite the higher revenue, AstraZeneca reported a pre-tax loss of $265 million due to its acquisition costs for US drugmaker Alexion Pharmaceuticals and new drug research.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said in November that it would start making a “modest” profit from the COVID-19 shot, which it was offering at “cost” – about $2 to $3 – after an agreement with Oxford. Other producers of COVID-19 vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, have been locking in huge profits on their shots all the time.
In the three months through September, the company said revenue jumped nearly 50% to a record $9.9 billion. The increase is due to sales of more than $1 billion in COVID-19 vaccines and the first inclusion of $1.3 billion in revenue from the Rare Diseases business unit following the recent acquisition of Alexion.
AstraZeneca expected the group’s total sales to rise by “a high percentage for teens” in 2022, but said that COVID-19 revenues would decline “by a low percentage to the mid-20s.”
CEO Pascal Soriot said AstraZeneca “has fulfilled our promise of broad and equitable access to our COVID-19 vaccine with 2.5 billion doses released for supply worldwide.”
He said: “AstraZeneca continued its strong growth trajectory into 2021, with industry-leading R&D (research and development) throughput, five of our pharmaceuticals crossing new thresholds, and Alexion acquisitions and integrations.
Soriot said the company will raise its dividend to shareholders by 10 cents to $2.90, the first increase in a decade.
AstraZeneca shares were trading up about 3% at 8.62 pounds ($11.68) on the London Stock Exchange Thursday morning.
AOQ