London, Nov 13 (IANS): UK vaccine maker AstraZeneca has said that it will cease to provide its Covid vaccine, co-developed with Oxford University, on a not-for-profit basis to countries that can afford it, the media reported.

The drugs giant has signed a series of for-profit agreements for next year, and expects to make a modest income from the vaccine, the BBC reported.

Previously, the company had said it would only start to make money from the vaccine when Covid-19 was no longer a pandemic as "its top priority was to protect global health".

But now the disease is becoming endemic, Pascal Soriot, chief executive was quoted as saying.

However, the jab will continue to be supplied on a not-for-profit basis to poorer countries.

"The virus is becoming endemic which means we have to learn to live with it" Soriot, adding that the contracts that had been signed are for next year.

"We started this to help, but we said we would transition [to making a profit on the vaccine]," he said. "It's not something we see as a huge profit-earner."

While other competitors had been making a lot of profit, Soriot said he had "absolutely no regrets" and said that the company's vaccine had saved a million lives around the world.

"I absolutely don't regret it," Soriot said. "We are proud as a company of the impact we have had -- we've saved millions of hospitalisations. The (AstraZeneca) team continues to do a stellar job."

There will be tiered pricing for countries to make sure the vaccine is affordable, Soriot said.

By the end of the year, AstraZeneca also expects to have supplied 250 million doses of its vaccine to the Covax programme for developing countries.

A normal profit margin in the drugs industry is about 20 per cent, but Soriot said AstraZeneca, which charges about $5 per shot for the Covid vaccine at cost price, would not be making as much profit as that, the BBC report said.

"The company is now expecting to progressively transition the vaccine to modest profitability as new orders are received," AstraZeneca said in its latest financial results.

"Covid-19 vaccine sales in [the fourth quarter of 2021] are expected to be a blend of the original pandemic agreements and new orders, with the large majority coming from pandemic agreements."

By the end of September, AstraZeneca and its sub-licensees had supplied 1.5 billion doses.

The company reported revenues for the first nine months of the year of $25.4 billion, but said its overall profit margins had declined, mainly due to providing the Covid-19 vaccine at cost price, the report said.