LONDON – AstraZeneca PLC said it was correcting problems with the manufacture of its Covid-19 vaccine and expects to double monthly production to 200 million doses by April, while seeking to overcome a difficult start to the injection launch.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker reported strong gains for the entire year and predicts a 2021 earnings growth. The forecast does not take into account sales of the pandemic vaccine developed in partnership with the University of Oxford.
Like other vaccine manufacturers, AstraZeneca and Oxford are working on new versions of the vaccine to target existing and emerging variants of the coronavirus. The drugmaker said on Thursday that it hopes to reach production of a scaled-up vaccine within six to nine months, using data from clinical trials and manufacturing agreements already in place.
Last year, AstraZeneca stumbled upon reporting clinical trial results and, more recently, suffered a deficit in the doses promised to the European Union. Chief Executive Pascal Soriot and other executives said on Thursday that they are solving production problems and will meet targets to deliver more than 400 million doses to rich and poor countries in the coming months. This follows green signals in the UK, Europe and beyond for the use of the vaccine, which has not yet been approved for use in the United States.
This week, the World Health Organization recommended the injection for widespread global use, including in countries fighting a new strain of coronavirus detected for the first time in South Africa. Limited test data suggested that the vaccine is less effective against that version of the virus, although it appears to resist a rapidly spreading variant seen for the first time in the UK, particularly against severe symptoms.
The company’s difficulties to increase the vaccine, together with questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness, reached the stock price and put executives on the defensive. The two-dose vaccine has been found in clinical trials to be approximately 60% to 70% effective in combating symptomatic Covid-19, depending on the distance of spaced doses and other factors.
The adoption of the injection in December and January was positive for AstraZeneca, but it was offset by manufacturing shortfalls that led to a high-level stalemate with European authorities in January.
“Is it perfect? No, it’s not perfect, but it’s great, and tell me who else is doing 100 million doses in February,” said Soriot by telephone. He and his executives said the vaccine showed strong protection against Covid’s severe symptoms and was crucial in preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
Despite the complications of the pandemic and the problems with the vaccine, the drugmaker performed well last year, analysts said.
“It was essential that [AstraZeneca] demonstrate that the strong momentum of its core businesses has not been impacted. [They] it didn’t disappoint, “said Citigroup analyst Andrew Baum.
AstraZeneca, best known for its established cancer drugs and other treatments, reported $ 26.6 billion in revenue for the year, an increase of 9% over the previous year. The annual profit after tax of $ 3.1 billion was more than double the previous year.
It recorded $ 2 million in sales in 2020 with the Covid-19 vaccine, offering the first and limited glimpse into the start of its global campaign to launch 3 billion doses this year. The company has pledged not to profit from the vaccine during the pandemic, or ever, in the case of low-income countries.
The United Kingdom was the first to authorize mass vaccination on 30 December. A spokesman for AstraZeneca said that vaccine sales are only scheduled when doses are shipped, and the $ 2 million in sales are offset by costs.
The company did not offer guidance on expected vaccine sales. In contrast, last week, Pfizer Inc. said it expected its Covid-19 vaccine to generate about $ 15 billion in sales this year, making it one of the company’s best-selling products in the United States. The vaccine, developed with BioNTech SE in Germany, contributed $ 154 million in sales in the fourth quarter, Pfizer said. The US Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine, the first to be released for emergency use in the United States on December 11.
There is no clear consensus on whether AstraZeneca can possibly profit from the vaccine, or for how much. The company said it would split sales of the Covid-19 vaccine separately starting next quarter. The injection costs an average of US $ 3 to US $ 5 a dose, much cheaper than most vaccines in use or in tests. Its price and ease of transport, coupled with AstraZeneca’s ambitious production plans, have made it an important part of low-income countries’ hopes of getting out of the pandemic.
All vaccine manufacturers face uncertainty about their vaccine sales, with new vaccines that are expected to increase competition and mutations in the virus causing manufacturers to rush to adapt vaccines. Long-term sales depend on the success of the modified shots and the trajectory of the pandemic.
Write to Jenny Strasburg at [email protected]