Pharmaceutical AstraZeneca achieved more than three times as many turnovers from the sale of its corona vaccine in the second quarter of this year as in the first three months of the year.
The Anglo-Swedish company did not include the sales of that inoculation in its full-year expectations because, on principle, it will not make a profit on production and sales as long as the pandemic lasts.
AstraZeneca raised expectations for the full year with the acquisition of the Alexion company. It specializes in medicines for rare diseases.
AstraZeneca’s corona vaccine, which the University of Oxford developed, has suffered several setbacks in recent months. For example, it turned out not to protect as well as the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. The use was also suspended in several countries because of a risk of a form of thrombosis.
An application for approval in the United States postponed AstraZeneca to the second half of the year. That is still a goal, CEO Pascal Soriot said. But, according to the Frenchman, that could still be important in the future.
Soriot also said that AstraZeneca could not make a profit from the vaccine forever, opening the door to a price hike. However, the CEO stated that his company would never be after large profits from the vaccine.
Despite this, AstraZeneca sold $894 million worth of corona vaccines. Total revenue came in at $8.2 billion, significantly more than the $6.2 billion from the same period a year earlier. Profit was $550 million against $738 million a year earlier.