Covid vaccine helps push AstraZeneca to record revenues
AstraZeneca has reported a record quarter for revenues, including $1.8bn from its Covid-19 vaccine and sales from its $39bn acquisition of rare disease company Alexion.
Shares rose 4 per cent after the drugmaker said total revenues soared 63 per cent year on year to $12bn in the fourth quarter after the effect of currency moves were stripped out — higher than the consensus forecast for $11bn. Two cancer drugs — Tagrisso and Lynparza — and Soliris for a rare disease each generated more than $1bn in the three-month period.
Core earnings per share rose 74 per cent to $1.67, above the average analysts’ estimate of 73 cents.
The company increased its dividend for the first time in a decade, with a total 2021 dividend of $2.87.
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, said the company had “industry-leading research and development productivity”, with five new medicines becoming blockbusters — producing more than $1bn revenue a year — in 2021.
AstraZeneca made its first sales of its Covid-19 vaccine on a for-profit basis in the quarter, with contracts in Latin America and the Middle East, but did not give detail of the revenue generated.
The company forecast sales of Covid-19 products, which also include a long-lasting antibody treatment for immunocompromised people who cannot be vaccinated, will fall by a low to mid-20s percentage this year.
Iskra Reic, AstraZeneca’s executive vice-president, said she was “comfortable” there is still demand for the vaccine.
Sir John Bell, an Oxford professor involved in its development, this week accused politicians and scientists of damaging the reputation of the AstraZeneca vaccine and potentially costing hundreds of thousands of lives.
When asked if he thought the company could have managed the vaccine better, Soriot said he had no regrets.
“It is really hard to regret anything when you have delivered 2.6bn doses of the vaccine and you have saved 1mn lives around the world,” he said.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine attracted headlines because of a rare blood-clotting side effect. There were also concerns about discrepancies in its data and delays in production. The US Food and Drug Administration has still not approved it.
Soriot said many people had focused on “some of the challenges we faced in parts of the world”.
“The US and Europe represent about 10 per cent of the world population. There are many people who live in many countries that are in need of the vaccine and that have been helped tremendously with this vaccine,” he said.
AstraZeneca forecasts a high teens percentage increase in total revenue in 2022, with currency movements stripped out, and a mid-to-high 20s percentage rise in core earnings per share. The new guidance puts AstraZeneca on track to hit a $40bn revenue target a year ahead of schedule.
Soriot took the top job at AstraZeneca almost 10 years ago, focusing on innovation and investment in R&D. The company now has 13 blockbusters, five of which have multibillion-dollar sales. In 2021, AstraZeneca had 22 regulatory approvals and authorisations, and 14 positive late-stage trial results for nine medicines.
In 2021 it reported total revenue of $37bn, up 38 per cent year on year at constant exchange rates, of which $4bn was from the Covid-19 vaccine developed in partnership with Oxford university. The company experienced double-digit growth in all of its major regions, despite pressure on prices in China.
AstraZeneca closed its deal to buy Alexion in July 2021. The acquisition brought a pipeline of drugs for rare diseases. Rare disease treatments contributed 8 per cent of revenue in 2021.