AstraZeneca swung to a fourth-quarter loss as higher costs more than offset a surge in revenue boosted by sales of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.
The drugs company posted a $636m pretax loss for the three months to the end of December from a $1.49bn profit a year earlier as revenue rose 62% to $12bn. Cost of sales rose to $4.63bn from $1.53bn.
AstraZeneca swung to an annual pretax loss of $265m from a $3.92bn profit a year earlier as costs more than doubled to $12.44bn from $5.3bn. The company declared a second interim dividend of $1.97 a share, taking the annual payout to $2.87.
The Vaxzevria coronavirus vaccine added $1.76bn to fourth-quarter revenue and $3.98bn to income for the full year.
AstraZeneca said it expected revenue to rise by a mid-teens percentage in 2022 and for core earnings per share to increased by a percentage in the mid-to-high 20s. The FTSE 100 group predicted Covid-19 revenue would decline by a percentage in the low-to-mid 20s and that the gross profit margin from Covid-19 sales would be lower than the company average.
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, said: “AstraZeneca continued on its strong growth trajectory in 2021, with industry-leading R&D 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.”
AstraZeneca has 13 so-called blockbuster medicines. Five of these crossed annual revenue thresholds including Tagrisso, which sold more than $5bn, and Farxiga, which passed the $3bn mark.
