How the AstraZeneca vaccine became a political football – and a PR disaster

 I was billed as the vaccine to deliver the world from Covid. But over the last six months, AstraZeneca – whose jab was designed to save thousands of lives for no profit – has found itself stumbling along an extraordinarily rocky road, facing accusations over the efficacy, supply and side-effects of its vaccine from all quarters, and being kicked about like a political football

This week, AstraZeneca faced unprecedented public criticism in the US from a high-level scientific body claiming the British-Swedish company massaged the data from its long-awaited trial there. And in Italy, military police entered a factory on behalf of the European commission investigating allegations of 29m hidden doses, said to be intended for shipment to the UK. The commission, which is demanding AstraZeneca supplies more jabs to Europe, meanwhile drew up regulations which could block vaccine exports to the UK.

Alleged politicisation of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is particularly evident in Europe where the distribution of jabs has trailed well behind progress in the UK. One UK government source suggested the raid on the Italian factory – which turned out to hold doses for Belgium and the developing world awaiting quality checks – was embarrassing for those “who tried to whip up an anti-AZ mob because it gives them political cover”.

At the start of this year, it looked as though post-Brexit animosity might lie behind the sniping. On 25 January, the German newspaper Handelsblatt caused a storm with a front-page story claiming the vaccine had only 8% efficacy in elderly people. On 29 January, France’s president Emmanuel Macron claimed it was “quasi-ineffective” in the over-65s. Germany and France refused its use in that age group. Although those restrictions have been lifted, many in those countries are reluctant to have the vaccine.

Now, facing a third wave in Europe, low uptake and criticism from French doctors who accused him of encouraging vaccine hesitancy, Macron has done a volte-face, saying he would be happy to be inoculated with it himself, while the prime minister, Jean Castex, had the AstraZeneca jab live on TV.

Yet still the flak flies. Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts has this week accused the company of dishonesty and arrogance. It had “over-promised and under-delivered”, he said, and hinted there were still issues with safety even though the European Medicines Agency has given it a clean bill of health.

Embattled scientists at AstraZeneca feel they have been unfairly targeted for trying to do something that goes against the profit-driven grain in the pharmaceutical industry – produce a low-cost, easy-to-use vaccine that will work well for low- and middle-income countries but will not make them money in the short-term.

Sir John Bell, the Oxford University professor who helped drive the vaccine’s development, suggested morale at AstraZeneca is plummeting and that it had never received due credit for its decision to take no profit. Others are making fortunes – Moderna expects $18bn in revenue this year from the vaccine and Pfizer/BioNTech $15bn.

Read the full story in The Guardian