BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese vaccine maker CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) said on Friday it had returned to operating profit of 802.3 million yuan ($123.79 million) in the first six months of 2021, driven by use of its COVID-19 shot. That compared with 123.0 million yuan of operating loss in the same period a year ago, CanSinoBIO said in a filing in the Hong Kong stock exchange. It marks the first six-month profit since at least 2019. The firm is yet to achieve full-year profits since it went public in 2018 in Hong Kong.
It reported 937.1 million yuan profit and total comprehensive income for the first six months of 2021. Its single-dose COVID-19 shot, named Ad5-nCoV, has been approved for use in countries including China, Mexico, Pakistan and Chile. The vaccine approvals were one of the major drivers for the sixth-month profit, CanSinoBIO said.
($1 = 6.4813 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Catherine Evans)
