The drugmaker’s interest in the Oxford COVID vaccine is of very little relevance to the financial fortunes of AstraZeneca, which is actually the fifth-largest firm in the FTSE 100, according to its quarterly results released today.
In reality, AZ is losing money as a result of its participation in the vaccine rollout.
AZ announced sales for the first time today.
To put that into context, $275m of that came from sales of the COVID vaccine AZ devised with the University of Oxford, representing a mere 4% of the total.
Moreover, because AZ is selling the vaccine at cost, the product actually turned out to be a drag on the company’s earnings.
These came in at $1.63 per share, up 55% on the same period last year, way ahead of the $1.48 that analysts had been expecting.
AZ said today the figure would have been $1.66 were it not for the cost of producing the Oxford vaccine.
