Annie Bynnol Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 2 hours ago, Victor Meldrew said: Amazing how AstraZeneca are on the tip of everyone's tongue nowadays after being virtually unheard of for many years. I worked for them all my working life, although they started out as ICI Pharmaceuticals before divesting from ICI and renaming as Zeneca, and then later merging with Swedish firm Astra. When I worked for them their share price virtually never got over £30 but is currently at £74 - although I try not to take that personally. It even got over £90 late last year! Nobody ever seems to have a good word to say about pharmaceutical companies until they see how utterly reliant we are on their efforts. All people tend to see is just how much they charge for some of their drugs. What they don't see is how much the best scientists cost to employ and retain or how much money is invested in the discovery, development, registration and clinical trial of a product before the relatively tiny window of opportunity opens up to profit from it's sale before the patent runs out and the generic copyists take over. This doesn't of course apply to their current efforts for Covid but it'll do them no harm in the long-run, maybe even re-focus their future portfolio. The irony for employees (and pensioners) of AZ is that they upped sticks from Cheshire and relocated to Cambridge to be part of a 'life-science' hub working closely with Cambridge Uni. And then they end up in partnership with Oxford Uni for the Covid vaccine! It was the R&D that left for the new Cambridge site, Alderley Park and Macclesfield are still employ thousands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuteWitness Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 I remember hearing that it was not for profit but have since heard investors like Google will make a lot of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Litotes Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Auckland - 3 cases = lockdown and few deaths The UK - a gazillion cases (ok, a slight exaggeration) and we are talking about removing lockdown and a huge number of deaths. Anyone else notice the discrepancy between the impact of an effective leadership leading to effective policies (NZ), and the populous rhetoric of a lying, cheating, sexist, racist PM who allows the mother of his child to dictate recruitment policies for the government, and who hasn't got an effective policy though in his head (UK)? ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Meldrew Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 6 hours ago, Annie Bynnol said: It was the R&D that left for the new Cambridge site, Alderley Park and Macclesfield are still employ thousands. Yes I meant their R&D operation, although many head office staff from London also went there as it's now the UK HQ. There are now very few AZ employees at Alderley Park. It has become a popular new life-science hub but now populated by several other firms who rent laboratory & office space. Part of the site (which used to be a stately home before ICI bought it) has now been developed into posh housing! Macclesfield is a production site so it wouldn't have made any sense to relocate this to Cambridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petemcewan Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) This is going to be interesting. Let's hope it's a great leap forward. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-covid-19-trial-tests-mixing-two-different-vaccines-first-n1256683 Edited February 15, 2021 by petemcewan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Cid Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 38 minutes ago, petemcewan said: This is going to be interesting. Let's hope it's a great leap forward. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/new-covid-19-trial-tests-mixing-two-different-vaccines-first-n1256683 The vaccines have a range of effectivness, from around 60% - 95% Would it be better to just go with the one that gives 95% effectivness? Are we searching for more than 95%, that would be great. But to be honest, I think there is very little scrutiny, they could claim 100% effectivness and the media wouldnt blink an eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poll Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 I have just received my invitation to make an appointment for the COVID injection. Please can someone tell me if there is a choice of vaccination centres for Sheffield, or is there just a choice between your own GP and the Arena vaccination centre? Also, please can someone tell me if the vaccinating staff at the Arena wear protective gloves when they are injecting patients? May seem like a stupid question but last week there were photos of people giving injections and not wearing protective gloves (at a drive through centre) and it really put me off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RollingJ Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 21 minutes ago, Poll said: I have just received my invitation to make an appointment for the COVID injection. Please can someone tell me if there is a choice of vaccination centres for Sheffield, or is there just a choice between your own GP and the Arena vaccination centre? Also, please can someone tell me if the vaccinating staff at the Arena wear protective gloves when they are injecting patients? May seem like a stupid question but last week there were photos of people giving injections and not wearing protective gloves (at a drive through centre) and it really put me off? Just booked mine this morning, Poll, after receiving a text from my surgery - and the letter, which should explain the procedure. If your GP surgery is doing them, and they have the capacity, you will most likely go there. Sadly, my surgery has too many to handle, so I'm going to Jordanthorpe. The staff doing the vaccinations will be wearing full PPE including gloves. I suspect those photos were staged and it would be wasteful just to put on gloves for a photo, only to have to discard them afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petemcewan Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 EL Cid, I do agree with your second paragraph. I would very much appreciate it, if you could elaborate on what you mean by,"very little scrutiny". I don't see how Pharma can get away with releasing fraudulent vaccine data into the public domain . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Cid Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 1 hour ago, petemcewan said: I do agree with your second paragraph. I would very much appreciate it, if you could elaborate on what you mean by,"very little scrutiny". I don't see how Pharma can get away with releasing fraudulent vaccine data into the public domain . If there had been some scrutiny, surely people would be choosing the most effective vaccine with the least side effects? Which vaccine would that be? Maybe people are, its just me that took the first one offered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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