LONDON – AstraZeneca, the British maker of a Covid-19 vaccine with Oxford University, said today its 2020 net profit more than doubled to US$3.2 billion (RM12.9 billion) thanks to strong sales growth of cancer drugs.
The company in a statement said profit after tax soared 139% compared with 2019.
Revenue from cancer medicines, including Lynparza and Tagrisso, jumped 23%.
“Despite the significant impact from the pandemic, we delivered double-digit revenue growth” last year, its chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said.
“The consistent achievements in the pipeline, the accelerating performance of our business and the progress of the Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated what we can achieve.”
The update comes a day after AstraZeneca said it plans to accelerate production of its Covid-19 vaccine in the second quarter to support European Union needs, in a deal with Germany’s IDT Biologika.
The announcement follows controversy over deliveries of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University jab to the EU, which has caused tensions between the bloc and the pharmaceutical company.
Ahead of the EU’s vaccine approval, AstraZeneca sparked fury in Brussels by announcing that it will miss its target of supplying the bloc with 400 million doses, owing to a shortfall at the firm’s European plants.
While the United Kingdom government has vaccinated millions of Britons with the AstraZeneca vaccine since late last year, the company began shipping its jab to the EU only on Friday after the bloc’s drug regulator took a comparatively much longer time to recommend its use. – AFP, February 11, 2021
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