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AstraZeneca signs new Covid contracts in shift away from not-for-profit. AstraZeneca said it had started signing commercial contracts to supply its Covid-19 vaccine next year as the pandemic moves to an “endemic phase,” in a major shift away from the drugmaker’s not-for-profit pricing.


Britain’s biggest pharma firm expects the vaccine to move to “modest profitability” as new orders are received. However, chief executive Pascal Soriot insisted that it was offering affordable and tiered pricing, depending on countries’ ability to pay. He said the vaccine, developed with Oxford University, would not become “a huge profit earner”.
AstraZeneca has sold more than $2.2bn (£1.64bn) of its Covid-19 vaccine, called Vaxzevria, in the first nine months of this year, half of which it booked in the three months to September.


AZ’s $1.1bn vaccine revenues in the third quarter are far below the sales made by US rivals Pfizer ($13bn) and Moderna ($4.8bn). Earlier this month, Pfizer forecast vaccine revenues of $36bn this year and $29bn next year after it started shipping booster jabs and shots for children.


AZ had pledged to sell its vaccine at cost for the duration of the current Covid-19 pandemic, and has charged about $5 a shot. On Friday, Soriot effectively declared the pandemic over. “We have to accept that … the virus is becoming endemic. And we’re going to have to learn to live with it, which means in great likelihood regular boosters,” he said. “We are moving to an endemic phase and next year is the target for these commercial contracts.”


AZ has come in for a lot of political criticism outside the UK even though it has been one of few vaccine makers selling its shot at cost. Its jab has not been approved in the US after questions were raised over the way it had reported trial data. AZ intends to file for US approval by the end of the year. Confidence was eroded further when a rare link with blood clots was reported. The firm has also been embroiled in a public row with the European Union over delays to vaccine supplies, and the EU has not placed further orders.