French pharma boss who could save the UK from Covid-19
Pascal soriot is on a mission. Not satisfied that in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic astraZeneca has become Britain’s most valuable company, he believes that his scientists – together with those of Oxford University – are well on the way to producing the first proven vaccine against saRs-coV-2, the virus behind the pandemic.
Not only that, the astra chief executive believes he is in a leading position to produce some of the most promising compounds to treat the disease.
Usually it takes many years, if not decades, to create safe and useable vaccines. But through sheer willpower, a can- do attitude and working 24/7, soriot is hopeful that aZ will have a vaccine ready to be used in the NHs as soon as september of this year.
In his first newspaper interview since lockdown he told the Daily Mail: ‘We are confident it will work. The challenges are will it work on everybody and will some people need two doses?
‘as you get older your immune system doesn’t work so well. so those over 75 years old might get two injections.’
If approvals can be won by september or October, he and his colleagues have put in place the manufacturing capacity across the world to produce up to 2bn doses almost immediately.
‘The study in the UK is moving very rapidly,’ he says, though the slowdown in the number of cases is an issue.
‘If there is no disease how do you show efficacy?’ he adds. astraZeneca has started trials in Brazil, a hotspot for covid-19.
The UK pharma group has the world at its feet, having moved so far ahead in producing a vaccine and developing palliative treatments using its own labs and science.
BEFORE we hold our Zoom conversation, at 10am soriot has already held separate calls with several unidentified health ministers from major continental european countries seeking advice and assistance.
soriot, a frenchman who has australian citizenship, is marshalling his war against coronavirus from london – a world away from his family home on a bay overlooking the sydney landscape.
‘ I haven’t seen my wife in three months,’ he confides.
‘Well, she’s happy with the grandson in australia. But I’m stuck here with the cat. There’s a very friendly relationship with the cat. she comes and talks to me.’
an intense man with jet-black hair, the 61-year-old is something of a corporate maverick.
He is best known in the city as the french scientist who bravely fought off american pharma behemoth Pfizer when it launched a takeover bid in 2014.
at the time, much of the city and David cameron’s conservative government were urging the company to accept the £90bn bid.
No one envisaged that six years later, amid the greatest health crisis of modern times, AZ would sit proudly at the top of the FTSE 100 with a market value of £110bn, something soriot downplays.
‘I didn’t expect it would happen, if you had asked me a few years ago. I don’t look at the share price every day. My focus has been on building the pipeline and driving our return to growth and be the leader in oncology, the leader in respiratory diseases or cardiovascular disease. That’s our goal.’
‘I must say, I like the underdog position better than being at the top,’ he adds. ‘I’m more comfortable in adversity.’
so is it true that amid all the covid- 19 drama ASTRAZENECA flirted with the idea of a merger with cash-rich american rival Gilead? He won’t comment on whether such conversations may have taken place.
But he is also anxious to point out why such a mega-merger might not be a good idea at this particular time. ‘We are very busy restarting the company, like the Government is very busy restarting the economy.
‘It is very complicated getting everybody back to work, especially the sales force.
‘Restarting our trials, getting our labs restarted, and then we are busy working on this vaccine.
‘It’s enormous work internally scaling up this manufacturing capacity. last night, for instance, I was talking to speaker Pelosi for half an hour.’
He says such pressure, including those discussions with Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the Us House Of Representatives, gives him little time for mergers, adding: ‘Do you think I have collectively the bandwidth brain-wise and timewise to conduct the biggest merger in the history of the industry via Zoom?
‘The one thing which puzzles me is how gullible people can be in terms of believing this.’
The most remarkable aspect of astraZeneca’s pursuit of a covid19 vaccine is the speed with which the group has assembled manufacturing capacity.
‘We have built three independent supply chains, one for the Us, one for europe and one for asia and low and middle-income countries. It’s a mixture of our own facilities and contract manufacturers.’
The UK will be first in line for the vaccine because it ‘has made a decision quickly and because of the history with Oxford’.
He praises the Us for moving incredibly fast, but he pledges poorer countries are not going to be left behind. ‘essentially, 1.4bn doses of the 2bn will be going to lower and middle-income countries. a lot of the funding for this comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation,’ soriot says. ‘ Bill Gates is redeploying his wealth to good use by putting $1.6bn (£1.3bn) into an accelerator so they can access the vaccines.’
In addition to the vaccine, soriot is also hopeful that work astraZeneca is doing in three other areas can assist in treating the disease. The company is engineering antibodies that can be used to treat patients and could be used as a prophylactic.
OVER in its UK labs and Us facilities at Gettysburg a respiratory treatment is showing ‘tremendous results in phase two’ and is now on to phase three, the final stage of trials before seeking the regulatory go-ahead.
He is hopeful that it will be in use by the third quarter of 2021. aZ also has a promising product called calquence, which could inhibit covid’s deadly attacks on the lungs and other organs.
Having rebuilt astraZeneca and moved it into the fast lane on vaccines, soriot is not complacent.
‘Now is the time to speed up and do more. I have seen so many cases where somebody’s company is doing well, people relax, they go slow and then, boom, you go down. It’s time to try and move even faster.’
scientists, employees, investors and pharma rivals take note.