Beximco Pharma warns of ‘little to no revenues’ from Covid-19 jab deal with gov
Beximco Pharmaceutical shares have slipped after the company warned of "little to no revenues" from its deal with the Bangladesh government for Covid-19 jabs, reports MSN.
The London-listed company from Bangladesh, which last year sealed the deal for a majority stake in Sanofi's Bangladeshi business, had been supplying the AztraZeneca/ Oxford vaccine to the government.
Bangladesh has been on the receiving end of the global effort to donate surplus vaccines under the Covax scheme, however, meaning the government has not been ordering more jabs through its deal with Beximco.
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"The broader availability of Covid-19 vaccines in Bangladesh (due, in part, to donations made directly to Bangladesh), means that it is unlikely that the Bangladesh government will seek to procure any further vaccine doses through this agreement for the foreseeable future," the company was quoted as saying by MSN.
Beximco added that "a widespread lack of desire" for booster vaccines in the country has also dampened demand.
Shares sank 6.6% to 63p per share by mid-afternoon on Tuesday.
Despite the Big Pharma firm's Covid-19 woes, Beximco's sales grew more than 17% to £309.7m in the year to 30 June.
The firm also launched some 30 new products in the Bangladesh market over the past year, nine which had been introduced in the country for the first time.
Beximco Pharma MD Nazmul Hassan said in a statement, "With organic growth coupled with the acquisition of Sanofi Bangladesh (now Synovia Pharma), we have continued to further consolidate our domestic market position.
"Simultaneously, we have maintained our focus on growing our position in high-value markets, such as the US and UK through more product approvals during the period."
"Over the first quarter of the new financial year, we are seeing the impact of numerous headwinds such as the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions and record depreciation of local currency.
"While we expect these issues to have an impact on Q1 and beyond, we remain committed to expanding our businesses, seeking operational efficiencies and delivering on our strategy to maximise the potential of Beximco Pharma," Nazmul Hossain added.
