Britain’s Prince Charles to Open New AstraZeneca Research Center

Varieties

November 23rd, 7:15am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Britain's Prince Charles looks on as he meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Maximos Mansion during celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence, in Athens, Greece, March 25, 2021. (Reuters)

Britain's Prince Charles will formally open a new 1 billion pound ($1.3 billion) AstraZeneca research and development (R&D) facility on Tuesday, as the company aims to fuel the growth of its drug pipeline. AstraZeneca has supplied two billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed at Oxford University, and is also looking to bring a preventative antibody cocktail against COVID-19 to market. But while the company is setting up a separate division for vaccine and antibody therapies in light of the coronavirus pandemic, it has also beefed up other areas of research Earlier this year, AstraZeneca completed the $39 billion purchase of rare-disease specialist Alexion. "Our new Discovery Centre in Cambridge raises the bar for sustainable R&D and global collaboration across our industry," Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement. "It will allow us to break new boundaries in the understanding of disease biology, bring life-changing medicines to patients and power the next stage of our company's growth." AstraZeneca, which has a large portfolio of treatments for diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, said the center would support research into specialized medicines and next-generation therapeutics, including gene-editing and cell therapies. Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth and heir to the throne, will take a walking tour of the center and give a short address at the opening.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3319791/britain%E2%80%99s-prince-charles-open-new-astrazeneca-research-center