AstraZeneca PLC said it would start pricing its Covid-19 vaccine to make it profitable, ending a period in which it had pledged to roll out the shots at cost during the pandemic.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant said it would shift away from a nonprofit approach to the vaccine starting in 2022, signing new contracts that will allow it to make money off the shot. The company expects some earnings contribution from new orders in the fourth quarter of this year.

The...

AstraZeneca PLC said it would start pricing its Covid-19 vaccine to make it profitable, ending a period in which it had pledged to roll out the shots at cost during the pandemic.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant said it would shift away from a nonprofit approach to the vaccine starting in 2022, signing new contracts that will allow it to make money off the shot. The company expects some earnings contribution from new orders in the fourth quarter of this year.

The company said the shot generated $1.05 billion in revenue in the third quarter.

AstraZeneca has long said it would strive to eventually make a profit on the vaccine, which it developed with the University of Oxford. The shot was one of the first approved for emergency use in much of the world, alongside one made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, and another by Moderna Inc.

Those companies set out to make money on their shots, and have since booked billions of dollars in profit. Pfizer said earlier this month its vaccine’s revenue of $13 billion was the biggest contributor to its third-quarter sales of about $24 billion, which more than doubled year over year.

AstraZeneca, which struggled with production problems earlier this year, has continued to pump out doses around the world. In many places, including in the U.K. and Europe, AstraZeneca shots were a mainstay of early vaccination drives. But links to very rare, but sometimes deadly, blood clotting prompted many governments to limit and scale back the shot’s distribution.

The vaccine isn’t cleared for use in the U.S., though AstraZeneca has said it would seek full authorization eventually from the Food and Drug Administration.

AstraZeneca said Friday it posted a net loss for the third quarter despite a jump in revenue, as its recent acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals and increased research-and-development expenses dragged down earnings.

Shares were down more than 2% in early London trading.

The company lost $1.65 billion in the third quarter, compared with a net profit of $651 million a year earlier. Profit margins were also affected by a $1.04 billion hit from the unwinding of the fair-value adjustment to Alexion inventories at the date of acquisition. R&D expenses increased to $7.15 billion, including a $1.17 impairment charge related to the acquisition of Ardea Biosciences.

Revenue rose to $9.87 billion from $6.58 billion, attributed to an increase in product sales and the first contributions from the rare-disease business following the Alexion acquisition.