AstraZeneca is creating a new division for vaccines and antibody therapies as the drugmaker commits to the business despite the shaky start for its Covid-19 shot.
The Anglo-Swedish company confirmed the creation of the vaccines and immune therapies unit, saying it would bring together research and development, manufacturing, commercial and medical teams.
“The team will be dedicated to our Covid-19 vaccine, our long-acting antibody combination and our developmental vaccine addressing multiple variants of concern, as well as to our existing portfolio for respiratory viral disease,” it said.
The new unit will be led by Iskra Reić, who is currently executive vice-president for the Europe and Canada region.
The move comes after the vaccine, also known as Vaxzevria, suffered several setbacks earlier this year, including delays because of manufacturing problems, concerns over a very rare blood clotting side effect and disputes over data underpinning its efficacy.
In May, chief executive Pascal Soriot told the Financial Times that he believed the vaccine “had a future” but the company had not yet decided what to do with it in the long term. “I was originally expecting that by now we would know, but we’ve had so much to do and we’ve had a few setbacks for sure,” he said.
Initially, AstraZeneca was not seen as an obvious partner for the University of Oxford because it made just one vaccine, a nasal spray to prevent flu, and so did not have the infrastructure required for traditional vaccine production.
People familiar with the matter said the new unit was a sign that the drugmaker would continue to market the vaccine, created with the University of Oxford, beyond the pandemic period, when its contract allows it to generate a profit.
One of the people cautioned that there was no significant additional investment attached to the restructuring and suggested one benefit would be to allow Soriot to focus on other more profitable businesses, such as oncology.
Another said that it was “simply a pooling of resources and leadership for a number of assets in the portfolio and does not signal a direction of travel for the vaccine”.
The company is still waiting for US Food and Drug Administration approval almost a year after its rivals received emergency use authorisations. Many EU countries have either ditched or restricted use of the shot.
Even the UK, which predominantly used the vaccine in the initial rollout, has chosen to mainly use Pfizer jabs as boosters. The European Medicines Agency is still reviewing use of the AstraZeneca shot as a booster.
While Pfizer has grabbed market share in the more lucrative developed markets, which has led it to raise its forecasts for revenue from its Covid-19 shot to $36bn this year, AstraZeneca is forecast to generate about $4.2bn, according to an estimate from health data analytics group Airfinity. AstraZeneca, which will report its third-quarter earnings on Friday, has delivered more than 1.9bn doses of its far cheaper shot.