AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his contribution to life sciences and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot/Win McNamee/Getty Images
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has been knighted in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his contribution to life sciences and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Knights Bachelor ranks under the British honors system and is given to men who have been knighted by the queen but are not part of the organized orders of chivalry. Following this designation, Soriot effectively adds “Sir” to his name.
Soriot received recognition for his pivotal role as AstraZeneca’s head when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The biopharmaceutical company responded to the crisis urgently, making its COVID-19 vaccine available at zero profit at the beginning of the pandemic and delivering up to three billion doses to over 180 countries at cost, with priority to low- and middle-income nations.
“He spotted the Government’s urgent need for more Covid-19 testing capacity and offered to build a national testing centre capable of 100,000+ tests a week. Set up in under eight weeks, the Cambridge centre processed well over 3 million samples in a year and supported staff testing at NHS Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Daily, for 12 months, he demonstrated incredible leadership, working across the world to establish global partnerships to research, develop, approve and manufacture the vaccine in record time and under intense media scrutiny,” the announcement stated on the British government’s website.
“Core to this work has been his personal undertaking that there be fair and equitable access to the vaccine at no-profit to AZ. By November 2021, over 2 billion doses had been supplied to over 170 countries across all 5 continents, with AZ supplying 2/3rds of the total doses distributed in low to mid-income countries,” the description added.
Soriot has led AstraZeneca for the last 10 years and is instrumental in launching a wide range of therapeutics for rare diseases. It was also under his leadership that the company was able to fend off a takeover attempt by Pfizer in 2014.
“I am truly humbled by this recognition. Growing up in France, I had many dreams and hopes for the future, but I never thought I would receive a knighthood from Her Majesty the Queen. As an Australian citizen it is a great privilege to receive this award and an honour to work with so many outstanding people around the world dedicated to following the science in order to bring medicines to patients. This recognition is also theirs and I would like to thank each of them for their commitment to our mission. I am also grateful to my family for their support in enabling me to pursue a career doing what I love,” Soriot said in a statement.
Alongside heading AstraZeneca, Soriot is also spearheading the Health Systems Taskforce of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, which His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales established to gather global leaders to deliver net-zero, sustainable healthcare. He is also the joint chairman of the UK Life Sciences Council.
