On Friday, the Anglo-Swiss company AstraZeneca reported its first quarter of the year results. Sales of its COVID vaccine were better than expected at $275 million. This is its first report on financial details including both sales and distribution of the vaccine it produces along with Oxford University. The pharma company said that is not making a profit on its vaccine. Approximately 68 million global doses of the vaccine have been delivered, so far. Revenues increased from 15 percent to $7.3 billion in this quarter.
The quarter results also beat analysts’ estimates with a 55 percent increase in core earnings at $1.63 against the predicted $1.48. Profit after tax also saw a sharp rise from £750 million to £1.56 billion. Share prices rose by about 4.3 percent in London on Friday after Q1 results.
Cancer drugs’ sales as well as emerging markets for the pharmaceutical company were two factors that improved its financial performance. The sales figures reported were as follows:
- Europe – 224 million
- Emerging markets – $43 million
- Rest of the world – $8 million
Sales from oncology related products for this quarter were 20 percent higher than the same period last year. Emerging markets’ revenues were higher by 14 percent and revenues from China saw a 19 percent increase.
These results were somewhat heartening for the company which faced a lot of backlash in Europe for various reasons including rare blood clots found in some people who had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine as well as slow rollout around the world when compared with the agreements signed by the company.
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive said that the company showed good results despite the slowdown due to the pandemic, which resulted in a slowdown of diagnosis and treatments of other medical conditions due to the emphasis on diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus infections all over the world.
