AstraZeneca says the COVID-19 vaccine could be approved by the end of this year. (File)
Britain’s AstraZeneca said on Thursday good data was arriving so far on its COVID-19 vaccine, already in large-scale human trials and widely regarded as the leader in the race for a vaccine against the new coronavirus.
The drugmaker, Britain’s most valuable listed company, also reported second quarter results that were better than its sales and profit estimates, thanks to strong sales of a diverse product line.
“The development of the vaccine is progressing well. We have so far good data. We have to show the effectiveness of the clinical program, but so far everything is fine,” said CEO Pascal Soriot during a call for media.
AstraZeneca has already made deals with countries to manufacture more than 2 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, and says it could be approved by the end of this year.
The company has had a busy few months: it took charge of developing the COVID-19 plan, received billions of dollars in government funding, signed several supply agreements, and even was the subject of a mega- merger speculation – while walking with its core Business.
It stuck to its outlook for 2020 on Thursday and its shares rose about 3% to 88.6 pounds after product sales of $ 6.05 billion in the three months leading up to June exceeded the consensus of 6. 01 billion dollars. The figure excludes payments related to stowage.
New diabetes, heart disease and cancer drugs, including its best-selling lung cancer drug Tagrisso, performed well in the quarter and AstraZeneca remains on track for a third consecutive year of growth.
Among drugs with better-than-expected revenues, sales of respiratory drug Symbicort rose 12% to $ 653 million, about $ 90 million above consensus, while revenue from cancer drug Lynparza increased jumped 62% to $ 554 million.
There are no approved vaccines for the disease caused by the new virus, but AstraZeneca injection is widely regarded as the main candidate after the results of the first human trials showed it to be safe and produced an immune response.
Basic earnings of 96 cents a share exceeded analysts’ expectations of 93 cents. Total turnover increased by 11%.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
