AstraZeneca to take profits from Covid vaccine

AstraZeneca has started to move away from providing its Covid-19 vaccine to countries at cost.

The drugs giant has signed a series of for-profit agreements for next year, and expects to make a modest profit from the vaccine this quarter, it said.

The company had previously said it would only start to make money from the vaccine when Covid-19 was no longer a pandemic.

Its chief executive Pascal Soriot said the disease was becoming endemic.

The jab will continue to be supplied not-for-profit to poorer countries.

Other vaccine manufacturers including Pfizer and Moderna have been making profits from their vaccines.

In its financial results, AstraZeneca said, "The company is now expecting to progressively transition the vaccine to modest profitability as new orders are received.

It said: "Covid-19 vaccine sales in [the fourth quarter of 2021] are expected to be a blend of the original pandemic agreements and new orders, with the large majority coming from pandemic agreements."

Mr Soriot had previously said, "We decided to provide it at no profit, because our top priority was to protect global health."

He told the BBC he had "absolutely no regrets" about not making a profit when competitors had been, despite having to deal with political criticism in various countries.

He said the vaccine had saved a million lives around the world.

By the end of September, AstraZeneca and its sub-licensees had supplied 1.5 billion doses.