The recently knighted head of AstraZeneca says he would not “do anything differently” despite acknowledging there had been “setbacks” with the vaccine developed with Oxford University. Research released in June 2021 suggested Vaxzevria, more commonly known as the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, is associated with slightly increased risk of some bleeding disorders.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive officer Sir Pascal Soriot, who was knighted last week for services to UK life sciences and the response to Covid-19, told the BBC the jab had saved one million lives. “I don’t think I would do anything differently from what we did,” he added.
The French-Australian admitted there had been “setbacks” as part of the process. “We decided to do it at no profit, we decided to partner with a network of partners around the world to scale up manufacturing,” Sir Pascal said.
