Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca says 2021 profit falls

LONDON, United Kingdom — British Covid vaccine maker AstraZeneca said Thursday that net profit collapsed last year, hit by the vast takeover of US biotech firm Alexion and other charges, despite surging revenues.

Profit after tax slumped to just $112 million compared with $3.2 billion in 2020, the pharmaceutical company said in a statement.

However, revenues including Covid vaccine sales rebounded 41 percent to $37.4 billion.

The Covid jab, Vaxzevria, saw full-year sales of almost $4 billion.

AstraZeneca, which developed its Covid jab with Oxford University, initially offered the vaccine at cost during the pandemic in contrast to rivals including Pfizer, but indicated in November that it would start selling it at a profit. 

The UK group faced vast costs following its $39-billion takeover of US biotech company Alexion, while it also took large impairment and restructuring charges.

"AstraZeneca continued on its strong growth trajectory in 2021," said chief executive Pascal Soriot, noting strong progress on new medicines alongside the purchase and integration of Alexion.

"We also delivered on our promise of broad and equitable access to our Covid-19 vaccine with 2.5 billion doses released for supply around the world, and we made good progress on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions."

Looking ahead to 2022, the group forecast declining Vaxzevria sales as the pandemic recedes.

AstraZeneca anticipates that Covid jab sales will sink by "a low-to-mid twenties percentage" this year.

That is expected to be partially offset by sales of Evusheld, its preventative moniclonal antibody treatment for immunocompromised people.

Yet AstraZeneca also warned that the gross profit margin from its Covid-19 medicines was expected to be "lower than the company average".