The British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca announced on Thursday that its net profit in 2020 was more than double that of the previous year and stood at 3.2 billion dollars, in a period marked by the pandemic and the development of its vaccine against Covid -19 with the University of Oxford.
At first, the achievement of this vaccine - cheaper and easier to store than its main competitors - earned the laboratory the praise of the international community.
But shortly thereafter, delays in the delivery of the planned doses to European Union countries and the limited data available on their efficacy in those over 65 years of age threw AstraZeneca into controversy.
“Has everything been perfect? No”, admitted the CEO Pascal Seriot in an online press conference to present the results, which he used to make an energetic defense of his company.
He stressed that his group now has "a vaccine that provides 100% protection against the most serious forms of the disease" generated by the coronavirus and that it plans to produce 100 million doses in February.
We have a great impact in the global fight against the pandemic, Seriot insisted, recalling that the group promised to sell the vaccine at cost.
The WHO announced Wednesday that the AstraZeneca vaccine can be administered to people over 65 and used with confidence in regions where variants of the virus circulate, despite doubts expressed by European countries such as France, Germany and Spain.
But shortly thereafter, delays in the delivery of the planned doses to European Union countries and the limited data available on their efficacy in those over 65 years of age threw AstraZeneca into controversy.
“Has everything been perfect? No”, admitted the CEO Pascal Seriot in an online press conference to present the results, which he used to make an energetic defense of his company.
He stressed that his group now has "a vaccine that provides 100% protection against the most serious forms of the disease" generated by the coronavirus and that it plans to produce 100 million doses in February.
We have a great impact in the global fight against the pandemic, Seriot insisted, recalling that the group promised to sell the vaccine at cost.
The WHO announced Wednesday that the AstraZeneca vaccine can be administered to people over 65 and used with confidence in regions where variants of the virus circulate, despite doubts expressed by European countries such as France, Germany and Spain.