AstraZeneca has said it made £3 billion from sales of its Covid jab last year.
The manufacturer, whose vaccine has been used around the globe in the battle to tackle the pandemic, also said that it expected revenues from coronavirus products to drop over the next year.
The group, which is not making a profit from the vaccine, notched up $1.76 billion (£1.3 billion) in sales from the Covid jab in the final three months of last year alone, with 2.5 billion doses released for supply around the world over the year as a whole.
The drugs giant forecast total group sales to rise by a “high teens percentage” in 2022, but warned that Covid-19 revenues would decline by a “a low-to-mid twenties percentage”.
It has set up a new division to focus on its treatments and jabs for Covid-19 and other respiratory infections.
Results showed AstraZeneca with a overall pre-tax loss of $265 million (£196 million) for last year, against profits of $3.92 billion (£2.9 billion) in 2020.
This came in spite of revenues jumping by 38 per cent to $37.4 billion dollars (£27.6 billion) as it was hit by costs of its $39 billion (£28.8 billion) mega deal to buy US drug company Alexion Pharmaceuticals, as well as new drug research.
Chief executive Pascal Soriot called 2021 a “landmark year”.
He said: “AstraZeneca continued on its strong growth trajectory in 2021, with industry-leading R&D (research and development) productivity, five of our medicines crossing new blockbuster thresholds, and the acquisition 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.”
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