Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced Thursday that sales of its Covid-19 vaccine reached $ 1.17 billion in the first half of the year, and raised its forecast.
This figure corresponds to the delivery of approximately 319 million doses worldwide.
Sales represented $ 572 million in Europe, and $ 455 million in emerging countries, according to a statement from the Swedish-British group.
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Group sales over the period increased 23% year-on-year to $ 15.5 billion and net profit group share rose 40% to $ 2.1 billion.
The group stresses that progress in its developing product portfolio and the recent acquisition of Alexion support its longer-term growth.
AstraZeneca is raising its earnings forecast for the full year to reflect the contribution of Alexion, whose acquisition has just been completed.
"
AstraZeneca generated a new period of strong growth thanks to a solid performance in all regions and in all pathologies
", particularly in oncology, said CEO Pascal Soriot.
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The Swedish-British pharmaceutical group announced in mid-July that it had obtained the green light from the United Kingdom for its $ 39 billion acquisition of the American biotech Alexion, which specializes in rare diseases.
