Sales of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine slow to zero

AstraZeneca still managed to increase its revenue, despite a nearly 2.2 billion dollar (£1.7 billion) reduction in revenue from Covid-19 medicines.

Millions were given the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination during the pandemic (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Archive)

AstraZeneca made no money from its Covid-19 vaccine in the second quarter of the year for the first time since it developed the drug which helped protect people from the pandemic.

The company, which made no profit on its Covid vaccine, said that sales slowed to zero in the three months to the end of June, from 445 million dollars (£348 million) in the same period a year earlier.

It marks the first quarter with no sales of the vaccine, known as Vaxzevria. Even in the first three months of this year it made revenue of 28 million dollars (£22 million) from the drug.

Yet AstraZeneca still managed to increase its revenue, despite a nearly 2.2 billion dollar (£1.7 billion) reduction in revenue from Covid-19 medicines.

Each of our non-Covid-19 therapy areas saw double-digit revenue growth, with eight medicines delivering more than one billion dollars of revenue in the first half, demonstrating the strength of our business

Chief executive Pascal Soriot

The business said that total revenue was up 4% to 22.3 billion dollars (£17.4 billion) in the first six months of the year, while pre-tax profit rose more than fivefold from 800 million dollars (£626 million) to 4.4 billion (£3.4 billion).

Chief executive Pascal Soriot said: “Each of our non-Covid-19 therapy areas saw double-digit revenue growth, with eight medicines delivering more than one billion dollars of revenue in the first half, demonstrating the strength of our business.

“Our pipeline momentum continues with eight positive pivotal trials for our oncology medicines so far this year, and we are encouraged by the positive data from Tropion-Lung01, the first pivotal trial of datopotamab deruxtecan.

“We look forward to sharing the data with the medical community at an upcoming medical congress and are proceeding to file the data with the US Food and Drug Administration.”