UPDATE 1-AstraZeneca could profit from COVID-19 vaccine as early as July – FT
Oct 7- AstraZeneca could start profiting from its COVID-19 vaccine as soon as July next year, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing a memo showing the British drugmaker can declare when it considers the pandemic to have ended. AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine with Oxford University, signed multiple supply-and-manufacture deals for more…
Oct 7 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca could start profiting
from its COVID-19 vaccine as soon as July next year, the
Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing a memo showing the
British drugmaker can declare when it considers the pandemic to
have ended.
The London-listed firm previously said it would not profitfrom the vaccine “during the pandemic”, and the reportattributes the development to a memorandum of understandingsigned this year between AstraZeneca and Brazilian public healthorganization, Fiocruz. (https://on.ft.com/3lgC0Xo)
AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine with OxfordUniversity, signed multiple supply-and-manufacture deals formore than 3 billion doses globally, although details on theterms have been scant.
According to FT, the “Pandemic Period” could be furtherextended beyond July 1, 2021, but only if Cambridge,England-based AstraZeneca “acting in good faith considers thatthe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not over.”
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a Reuters requestfor comment.
Pricing and supply of experimental COVID-19 vaccines havebeen widely debated as richer countries pump billions of dollarsinto funding, and AstraZeneca has also been granted protectionfrom future liability claims.(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by ShounakDasgupta and Ramakrishnan M.)