Mr Perreault told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he was happy for mRNA vaccine makers like Moderna to go their own way, noting that CSL had a broad portfolio of interests beyond vaccines.

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“There are not a lot of people who do what we do with plasma. And for Vifor, there are not a lot of people who produce products like iron, which is complex. We like complex things,” he said.

CSL posted a $US1.76 billion ($2.46 billion) profit for the six months to December, a decline of 5 per cent in constant currency terms. Group revenues were up 4 per cent to $US5.9 billion.

The company had foreshadowed that shortages of human plasma, the key ingredient in many of CSL’s medicines, would impact results. CSL’s COVID challenges were shown most clearly in the numbers of its immunoglobulin business, where core products rely on donations of human plasma.

Revenues in this category dropped 9 per cent to $US1.98 billion for the half in constant currency terms. However, Mr Perreault confirmed plasma collections are rebounding and collections were up 18 per cent over the past six months.

Investors responded positively to earnings numbers, with CSL shares closing up 8.5 per cent to $263.69 on Wednesday. Analysts were impressed by the strength of Seqirus revenues and the contributions made by other speciality medicines.

“The other highlight was hyperimmune [products] and HPV royalties, which were much stronger than anticipated - overall, a very strong result,” Jarden analysts wrote.

CSL investors will receive an interim dividend of $US1.04 per share on April 6, converted to $1.46 for Australian shareholders.

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