AstraZeneca’s boss Pascal Soriot (pictured) has claimed the pharmaceutical giant can’t keep making its Covid vaccine ‘at no profit forever’
AstraZeneca’s chief executive has today admitted the pharmaceutical giant can’t keep making no profit on its coronavirus vaccine ‘forever’.
The UK-based company secured a deal with Oxford University to manufacture the life-saving jab at cost throughout the pandemic.
But the firm, which has already delivered 1billion doses of its vaccine around the world, will soon start charging nations wanting to buy it.
AstraZeneca hasn’t yet revealed when it will make the switch to reaping all of the financial rewards from its Covid vaccine, however.
Chief executive Pascal Soriot told the Financial Times: ‘We can’t be at no profit for ever, but we will never intend to make large profits.
‘We’ll definitely have affordable prices, which tier the pricing at different levels depending on the wealth of the various countries.’
His comments come after rival Pfizer yesterday revealed it is expecting annual sales of its Covid vaccine to reach $33.5billion (£23.9billion) this year.
The company’s forecast — which shows how much money AstraZeneca could have made had it went down a similar path — was an upgrade on projections it made on May.
AstraZeneca is set to start charging nations wanting to buy its Covid vaccine more after making more than $1.2billion (£860million) in the first half of the global jab programme
UK fury at EU leaders for slating AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine ‘out of spite over Brexit’
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is just as likely to trigger blood clots as AstraZeneca’s, according to a study that has prompted fury among UK Government officials.
Scientists compared rates of thrombosis among more than 1.3million recipients of either jab in Spain.
Both vaccines came with a tiny risk of causing blood clots, with scientists branding their safety profiles ‘broadly similar’. Pfizer’s jab may even be more likely to trigger the rare blood-clotting complication, the data suggested.
In contrast, the virus itself was eight times more likely to lead to thromboembolism than either jab.
The findings go against an array of research saying the opposite, with health chiefs yet to uncover a link between Pfizer’s vaccine and blood clots.
Safety concerns over AstraZeneca’s jab first emerged in January, and prompted EU nations to shun the British-made vaccine en masse.
Top scientists insisted the jab was safe and would save thousands of lives, leading to claims the bloc heavyweights were using the vaccine to play post-Brexit politics.
In light of the new findings, one UK Government official accused European leaders of having ‘blood on their hands’ for trashing the life-saving jab.
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Mr Soriot said: ‘We don’t envy anybody and I have to say, our colleagues at Pfizer have done a beautiful job.
‘We’re all working to the same goal really, to try to bring vaccines, safe and effective vaccines, to people around the world.’
AstraZeneca’s Covid jab has faced safety doubts and suspensions in some leading European nations, over reports of rare blood clots.
The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have both declared that the benefits outweigh any risk, however.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine — proven to work in both trials and in real-world data — is crucial to hopes of inoculating the world against Covid because of how cheap it is.
Meanwhile, the firm today also said it has delayed applying for approval of the jab in the US.
Mene Pangalos, executive vice-president at AstraZeneca, told the FT the US Food and Drug Administration had requested an ‘awful lot of information’.
The firm today also unveiled its finance report for the first half of 2021.
It clocked $900million (£644million) in sales during the second quarter just from its vaccine.
But because it sold the jab at cost — the equivalent of around £3 per dose — it did not make a profit.
In comparison, Pfizer made $7.8billion (£5.6bn) with its more expensive jab.
The US firm, famous for making Viagra, splits its profits with German partner BioNTech.
Meanwhile, Pfizer yesterday lifted its full-year profit outlook as well as the expected range for 2021 revenues.
Pfizer’s chief executive Albert Bourla said more than a billion doses of the vaccine have been delivered.
He said ‘the speed and efficiency of our efforts with BioNTech to help vaccinate the world against Covid have been unprecedented.’
Pfizer said the pre-tax profit margin on the Covid vaccine sales was in the ‘high-20s’ in terms of per cent, the same as the earlier forecast.
Pfizer reported second-quarter profits of $5.6billion, up 59 per cent from the year-ago period on 92 per cent increase in revenues to $19billion.
Pfizer has launched clinical studies on a possible third dose of the Covid vaccine as a booster shot.
Mr Bourla has said such boosters could amount to a ‘durable’ revenue stream for the company.
US health officials have thus far not far backed a third shot for the broad population, but officials are studying the need for a third shot in immunocompromised people.
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