{"id":205205,"date":"2021-03-18T11:10:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T08:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-man-behind-the-vaccine\/"},"modified":"2021-03-18T11:10:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T08:10:01","slug":"the-man-behind-the-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-man-behind-the-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"#the man behind the vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#the man behind the vaccine<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"AstraZeneca
\n AstraZeneca is in the midst of a $39-billion acquisition of US biotech firm Alexion
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Pascal Soriot has led the charge to make AstraZeneca one of the first pharmaceutical companies in the world to produce a vaccine against COVID-19.\n <\/p>\n

The development of the vaccine with scientists at Oxford University\u2014and their decision to make it available at cost\u2014has made the Anglo-Swedish firm a household name.<\/p>\n

Since announcing successful clinical trials and having the vaccine passed by regulators, the company has faced a spate of challenges.<\/p>\n

Production and delivery delays of the vaccines in Europe have caused turmoil, while queries over clinical trial data have prompted questions about its effectiveness among the over-65s.<\/p>\n

Now, several countries, including France and Germany, have suspended the jab pending an investigation into whether it caused blood clots.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have both said the benefits of the vaccine outweigh any risk.<\/p>\n

But the attacks have left Soriot, a 61-year-old Frenchman, defending the company on multiple fronts, even as he leads the takeover of US biotech firm Alexion for $39 billion.<\/p>\n

With each question or suspension of the jab, AstraZeneca has kept a consistent line: the vaccine is safe and it is cooperating with governments and regulators.<\/p>\n

Soriot voiced annoyance with armchair critics in an interview with The Times in December. “I’m a player, I’m not a watcher or a commentator,” he said.<\/p>\n

He began his career in Australia, took Australian citizenship and still has a home in Sydney with his family.<\/p>\n

He revealed he made final preparations for the merger announcement with Alexion from a quarantine hotel.<\/p>\n

On a conference call in February at the time of the company’s annual results, he vigorously defended the company’s work on the life-saving vaccine.<\/p>\n

“Has everything been perfect? No,” he said, but stressed the vaccine provided 100 percent protection against the most serious cases of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The last 12 months have been his hardest ever, he admitted to The Times, as he shuttled between the United States, Europe and Australia. <\/p>\n

His only company often was his cat, Daisy, he added.<\/p>\n

Pharma veteran<\/b><\/p>\n

Soriot took over as chief executive of AstraZeneca in 2012 and has been no stranger to battles.<\/p>\n

He had locked horns with Pfizer even before the US firm tied up with Germany’s BioNTech in the race to develop the first COVID vaccine.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Pfizer had tried to takeover AstraZeneca for \u00a369 billion but failed.<\/p>\n

Soriot argued that the development of new cancer treatments would suffer\u2014and lives were at stake\u2014if the US firm was allowed to do so.<\/p>\n

A graduate of the Maison Alfort veterinary school, southeast of Paris, who holds an MBA from the HEC Paris business school, Soriot entered the pharma industry in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

In Australia, he spent years in sales for the French laboratory Roussel Uclaf, which was absorbed by the German pharmaceutical group Hoechst to become Hoechst Marion Roussel in 1995.<\/p>\n

He became managing director the following year, then moved to Japan in 1997.<\/p>\n

Through a series<\/a> of mergers, the group became part of the giant Sanofi group.<\/p>\n

Soriot then joined the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche in 2006.<\/p>\n

Then, from 2009 to 2010, he headed Genentech, a Roche subsidiary since 1990 which was then bought out in full in 2009 after a hostile takeover bid.<\/p>\n

He was poached to lead AstraZeneca in 2012.<\/p>\n

The markets remain general<\/a>ly confident in the company thanks to promising drugs in development.<\/p>\n

The company’s stock price has almost doubled in five years.<\/p>\n

But it is down 2 percent this year, while the FTSE-100 index, of which AstraZeneca is a member, has risen 5 percent since January 1.<\/p>\n

According to analysts, the stock has suffered in recent months from a proposed price for the purchase of Alexion that many consider too high.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news<\/a> on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot: the man behind the vaccine (2021, March 18)
\n retrieved 18 March 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-03-astrazeneca-pascal-soriot-vaccine.html<\/p>\n

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