LONDON, April 30 — British pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca reported on Friday US$275 million (RM1.1 billion) in sales from its Covid vaccine in the first three months of the year. It is the first time that the company discloses figures from sales of one of the world’s leading vaccines....
A vial labelled with the AstraZeneca coronavirus disease vaccine is seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021. — Reuters picLONDON, April 30 — British pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca reported on Friday US$275 million in sales from its Covid vaccine in the first three months of the year.
However, public confidence in the jab has taken a blow over worries of links to very rare blood clots, and the company is in a legal fight with the EU over delivery shortfalls. Excluding the contribution from the Covid jab, revenues rose by 11 percent — or 7.0 percent at constant rates — to US$7.045 billion.
“We delivered solid progress in the first quarter of 2021 and continued to advance our portfolio of life-changing medicines,” said chief executive Pascal Soriot in the earnings release. The results come at the end of a turbulent week after the European Union launched legal action against AstraZeneca over Covid-19 vaccine delivery shortfalls that hampered efforts to kickstart inoculations across the bloc.