AstraZeneca CEO says “vaccine has a future” after setbacks

The CEO of AstraZeneca insisted that its Covid-19 vaccine has a promising future because he revealed that the UK has the right to give priority to lancets and hit the “armchair general” behind the “traumatic” attack on the company. .

After suffering a series of setbacks, including the appearance of rare fatal side effects, Pascal Soriot defended the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in his first interview after suffering a series of setbacks, and Provides new evidence that it can play an important role in the ongoing fight against the disease.

Soriot told the Financial Times that the effect of the jab on the variants first discovered in India was only slightly worse than the variants identified by Kent, and said that in animal research, a new booster had an effect on other variants. good performance. He said that AstraZeneca is negotiating with governments including the United Kingdom on a new contract to increase the dose.

Soriot made comments for the first time since the European Commission stated that it would take legal action against AstraZeneca’s insufficient deliveries.Soriot said: “You can see that half is empty: our deliveries are less than what we expected in Europe. You can look at the half-full glass: we have delivered more than 400 million doses [worldwide] We have saved thousands of lives. “

He said: “I am European, so I love Europe. Please don’t misunderstand what I mean.” “But in the final analysis, Europe is a part of the world, not the whole world. And many countries in the world actually need this vaccine. , So this vaccine has a future.”

He believes that the launch of mass immunization in Europe is not AstraZeneca’s fault, but because of its relatively small investment. The United States has a high vaccination rate, but they do not have our vaccine. Therefore, if our vaccine is a problem in Europe, can you tell me how the United States achieves such a high vaccination rate? ” He says.

The EU is frustrated that the UK is not suffering from a shortage of supply. Soriot revealed that before AstraZeneca joined the development partner to produce and distribute vaccines, the British government had pledged to reach an agreement with Oxford University to make vaccine supply a priority in exchange for investment.

He said: “Of course, when you do this kind of work as a government, you don’t do it for free.” “The return you want is fair, it’s fair.”

He said that the British government has done a “good job in vaccination”, and the most important thing is that it has appointed a “professional” (venture capitalist Kate Bingham) to be in charge of the task force responsible for vaccines: price, or in electronic Put numbers in the table. People who know this industry. “He added.

He declined to say whether the EU should follow the same strategy. The EU has established a joint vaccine purchase system operated by the European Commission and officials from member states.

Soriot also avoids directly criticizing rival vaccine manufacturers, such as Pfizer and Moderna, some of which predict that Covid-19 vaccine sales will reach tens of billions of dollars this year alone.

He said: “We want to provide this vaccine is not profitable, because we believe that from an industry perspective, we should not be seen as making huge profits from this pandemic.”

After explaining that two-thirds of AstraZeneca’s vaccine supply will be used in low-income and middle-income countries, he said: “Pfizer will focus on the United States and Europe and some other countries, and hopefully, they will be used for poorer countries soon. Countries that provide vaccines.”

Due to the low efficiency of treatment in clinical trials and concerns about side effects, some countries have begun to regard AstraZeneca’s vaccine as a bad link with competitors. But Soriot insisted that the efficacy evidence collected in the study after the vaccine was approved showed that it “has exactly the same results” as the BioNTech/Pfizer jab.

He said that in the long run, the company has not yet decided what to do with the vaccine. Before the pandemic, AstraZeneca did not have a traditional vaccine business and only sold flu vaccine nasal sprays.

He said: “I originally hoped that we would know by now, but we still have a lot to do and we will definitely encounter some setbacks.” “You can’t say like this,’we are going to be vaccinated.’ You need to think about it,” Okay, do I have the right technology? Does this make sense? Is this a full use of our capital, rather than all the opportunities we have in the field of oncology? ‘”

This 61-year-old French CEO He said that by providing non-profit vaccines, he hopes to do better and improve the image of the industry.

But he claimed that the plan was disrupted by “bad luck” and “people’s misunderstanding.” Now, he is back at AstraZeneca’s Cambridge office. After operating the company through Zoom for several months in Australia, he said the attack was “traumatic.”

People just do their best. They are just trying to produce a vaccine to save lives. It’s that simple. Then, people who are criticized every day, sometimes just critics, sometimes those armchair generals who have opinions about everything, it’s really frustrating,” he said.

“Since I am a big boy, I have been criticized many times in my life, so I can bear it. My grandson is proud of me, so this is the only important thing,” Soriot added. “But we have thousands of people working on this… and I’m not exaggerating, people have already given months of their lives for it, so it is certainly frustrating to get all these criticisms. Therefore, You can think about what we could have saved, but you must remember the impact we have had. And the impact we have has saved thousands of lives.”

When the Data Security Surveillance Commission in the US trial accused the company of publishing outdated information, Soriot confessed its “own goal,” which indicated that the company had already massaged the results. The AstraZeneca staff simulated what the final data would look like, but they forgot to inform the board of directors.

He said: “Usually it is not necessary, but out of courtesy and good practices, they should tell them.” “People work hard, tired, and busy.”

Soriot faces a large number of investors Recoil Earlier this month, about 40% of shareholders voted against a compensation package worth up to 15.4 million pounds, half of which was related to stock price performance.

Noting that he comes from “a very humble family… Therefore, I know that each of us can make a lot of money.” Soriot said that in order to attract high-quality candidates, the company’s long-term incentive structure needs to be adjusted. . AstraZeneca is far below the “global pharmaceutical benchmark”, and other companies, including the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, have also provided higher long-term incentive grants.

“Therefore, people do nothing to me, which of course affects me, but it is important to formulate policies so that we can attract talents to replace me and also recruit talents. [senior executive team],” he added.

Regarding his own future, Soriot only stated that he would retire “at an appropriate time”, but made it clear that his departure plan is underway. The other two long-serving company heads, chairman Leif Johnson (Leif Johnson) Johansson) and Chief Financial Officer Marc Dunoyer (Marc Dunoyer). He said: “Each of us has an agreed order when we retire.”

Looking back at a year when his company was continuously criticized for its vaccine mistakes, but consolidated its position as one of the most successful global pharmaceutical companies with a portfolio of blockbuster drugs. He turned 62 on Sunday Shi said: “The advantage of getting old is that you will be scarred like an old soldier… The question is, in the direction of travel, will you generally rise? I think we are.”