AstraZeneca's revenue and pre-tax profits carried on climbing during the first quarter of 2021 as it continued to produce its Covid-19 vaccine.
The group, which developed the vaccine with Oxford University, has reported a revenue of $7.3bn for the three months to March 31, 2021, up from $6.3bn during the same period in 2020.
Its pre-tax profits also jumped from $935bn to $1.6bn over the same time.
The firm employs 6,500 employees across five UK sites in Cheshire, Cambridge and Bedfordshire.
Chief executive Pascal Soriot said: "We delivered solid progress in the first quarter of 2021 and continued to advance our portfolio of life-changing medicines.
"Oncology grew 16% and New Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism grew 15%. New medicines contributed over half of revenue and all regions delivered encouraging growth.
"This performance ensured another quarter of strong revenue and earnings progression, continued profitability, and cash-flow generation, despite the pandemic's ongoing negative impact on the diagnosis and treatment of many conditions.
"Given the performance in the first quarter, in line with our expectations, we reiterate our full-year guidance.
"We expect the impact of Covid to reduce and anticipate a performance acceleration in the second half of 2021.
"Further significant pipeline advances were achieved as we continued to invest for long-term sustainable growth, including the OlympiA Phase III trial demonstrating Lynparza's benefit for certain forms of early breast cancer.
"This sustained pipeline progress and accelerating business performance underlines our commitment to patients and delivering our growth potential, which will be further complemented by the proposed acquisition of Alexion."
