Drugs giant AstraZeneca says sales of its Covid-19 vaccine soared to £860 million in the first half of 2021 as the global jab programme rolled out at pace.
The group, which developed the jab with Oxford University, said vaccine sales more than tripled between the first and second quarters.
They rocketed from £197million to £640m in the three months to June 30.
It delivered about 319 million doses worldwide in the first half of the year, but pledged not to make a profit from the jab during the pandemic.
AstraZeneca supplied more than 80 million doses of the vaccination in the six months to more than 125 countries through the Covax global access initiative, making up more than 90% of Covax supply.
It also said that it had delayed application for approval of the jab in the US until the final six months of 2021, having originally hoped to put this through in the first half.
Total half-year sales increased by 23% to 15.5billion US dollars (£11.1bn).
Without taking the Covid vaccine into account, sales rose 9% at constant currency to £10.3bn.
Despite the sales boost, pre-tax profits fell 25% to £1.7bn) in the first half of the year.
It expects total revenue to increase by a low-20s percentage this year thanks to the acquisition of US drug company Alexion Pharmaceuticals, excluding Covid vaccine sales.
The group has faced both praise and criticism during the pandemic, with its Covid jab hailed as being one of the first on the market and for its low cost in comparison to other jabs.
However, a controversy in Europe over suspected blood clotting led to the vaccine briefly being suspended, and some countries are still not rolling out the jab.
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