AstraZeneca announced Thursday it had doubled its annual profit in 2020 as the World Health Organization approved its coronavirus shot for over-65s, boosting the global immunization effort against Covid-19.
Mass vaccination programs are being ramped up in many countries, but have been hampered by limited supplies as rising infections force governments to tighten virus restrictions.
AstraZeneca was at the center of a diplomatic spat between the EU and Britain earlier this year’s oversupply problems and also faced a setback when a number of European nations did not authorize its coronavirus shot for the over-65s — the demographic most vulnerable to Covid-19.
“Despite the significant impact from the pandemic, we delivered double-digit revenue growth,” CEO Pascal Soriot said as the firm announced a net profit of $3.2 billion in 2020. “The progress of the Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated what we can achieve.”
The results did not include the impact of its coronavirus vaccine. The firm said it would report those figures separately.
The WHO backed AstraZeneca’s coronavirus shot on Wednesday — including for over-65s and in places where new coronavirus variants are circulating.
