AstraZeneca revenues surged in 2021 as the Pharma giant rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine and saw strong growth in oncology and immunotherapy drugs.
AstraZeneca revenue rose 41% (38% at CER) to $37.4bn including COVID-19 vaccine sales and 26% excluding vaccines sales.
“Astrazeneca’s results showed a total revenue increase of 41% to $37,417m including COVID-19 vaccine revenues. The company managed to achieve 14 positive Phase 3 readouts across nine medicines in 2021, and 22 regulatory approvals and authorisations in major markets which further boosted its market dominance in the field,” said Walid Koudmani, market analyst at financial brokerage XTB.
Astra will create a new business unit for their COVID-19 vaccines but in an interview with Bloomberg TV, the Astra CEO said they expected volumes to fall as we move out of the pandemic. Although vaccine sales boosted Astra’s sales, the overall impact of the pandemic on profitability was negative.
“Covid vaccine sales added $4bn to sales at AstraZeneca, but coronavirus had the opposite impact on profits. Outfitting staff with PPE and providing tests together with increased investment in vaccine and treatment development all weighed on the bottom line,” said Laura Hoy, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Hoy also highlighted the impact of acquisitions on Astra’s profit but was confident growth would support a dividend hike in the future.
“The real driver for Astra’s profit decline was the Alexion acquisition. The purchase brought Rare Diseases under the Astra umbrella and our fist glimpse at performance for this sector wasn’t too shabby. Management were confident enough in the promise of future growth that they announced a dividend hike,” said Hoy.
Astra shares were up 2.3% at the time of writing on Thursday morning.