That’s a very accurate summary Buckerfan!
Fuji_Abound wrote:
That isnt my impression. It appears to have been (is being) pretty widely covered in Europe in the press and media.
Well, it would be nice to hear from some EU members, or have they all left? 
Grantly the “incidence” has been in the news, due to the effect it causes to the vaccination program (also in Norway by the way), but all this bad mouthing ? Has that been in the center of the media? Nothing from Sweden or Denmark that I know of, but maybe in the trash press?
Buckerfan wrote:
It is undeniable that Britain is by far the leading nation in Europe in the fields of life science research (Oxford and Cambridge Universities etc – plus lots of big and small life science companies) and also venture capital and entrepreneurialism.
I always feel a little weird when a sentence starts with “It is undeniable…”
Let’s look at some facts:
- The biggest Pharma companies in Europe are Roche, Novartis and Sanofi. AZ and GSK are big, but not as big as Roche and Novartis. Some others (Bayer, Novo, BI, Merck, etc.) are not as far away as well.
- In terms of patent applications in life science, Germany leads the pack with about 8% of EPO life science applications followed by Switzerland and France (6% each) with UK coming in 4th (4%) (quickly only found 2019 numbers)
- Academic quality is always extremely hard to measure, but looking at the nature index I wouldn’t come to the conclusion that UK is “undeniably leading”. Also in the life science index the German Max Planck Society is clearly in front of Oxford/Cambridge (and btw. I would not forget about the UCL in the UK but also not about the ETH, CNRS or INSERM).
- For venture capital and entrepreneurialism it is difficult to define hard metrics and get a market overview – and obviously London is an important finance hub in General. Specific to Lifescience I would also not forget about EdRip (Paris), Lifescience Partners (Amsterdam) and some Spain based firms.
Nothing against UK: It is obviously strong in Lifescience – but “undeniably” “by far leading” it is surely not!
or have they all left?
They haven’t left, but Brussels has come under heavy criticism from all around the EU for the crude vaccine export controls attempts, and nobody based there (bear in mind the mainland of Europe is way over 90% anti brexit) wants to get into that subject right now. Maybe in 10 years’ time when the brexit thing has cooled down a bit. It’s an issue on any international forum…
I am sure Norway is a different place from the rest of Europe: low density, relatively healthy, and very wealthy population all help tremendously.
Changing the subject a bit, I just learned that our family GP (for some 20 years) has sadly died of Covid. He was semi-retired, and about to retire fully. He was also a ‘lapsed’ pilot and we often chatted about flying.
No, we haven’t left just stopped reading some posters, who make statements that cannot be proven.
Yes, the EU comission screwed up but to be fair they did one of BJ’s famous U turns as soon as the Irish Prime Minister pointed out the error of their ways.
That doesn’t mean however that there are not a lot of people in Europe who are pretty p1ssed off with AZ. They’ve been paid and are not coming up with the goods with no acceptable explanation.
I think the Irish Premier put the EU’s position very succinctly on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, despite Marr looking for some sensational story.
By the way he pointed out that the Oxford AZ vaccine research was led by an Irish Professor.
Malibuflyer wrote:
I always feel a little weird when a sentence starts with “It is undeniable…”Let’s look at some facts:
- The biggest Pharma companies in Europe are Roche, Novartis and Sanofi. AZ and GSK are big, but not as big as Roche and Novartis. Some others (Bayer, Novo, BI, Merck, etc.) are not as far away as well.
- In terms of patent applications in life science, Germany leads the pack with about 8% of EPO life science applications followed by Switzerland and France (6% each) with UK coming in 4th (4%) (quickly only found 2019 numbers)
- Academic quality is always extremely hard to measure, but looking at the nature index I wouldn’t come to the conclusion that UK is “undeniably leading”. Also in the life science index the German Max Planck Society is clearly in front of Oxford/Cambridge (and btw. I would not forget about the UCL in the UK but also not about the ETH, CNRS or INSERM).
- For venture capital and entrepreneurialism it is difficult to define hard metrics and get a market overview – and obviously London is an important finance hub in General. Specific to Lifescience I would also not forget about EdRip (Paris), Lifescience Partners (Amsterdam) and some Spain based firms.Nothing against UK: It is obviously strong in Lifescience – but “undeniably” “by far leading” it is surely not!
I also feel that picture painted of the UK as a leader in life sciences was exaggerated. Strong yes, but not a stand-out leader.
In referencing the big companies and who does what it is perhaps enlightening to distinguish between R (research) and D (development).
The big pharma companies do nothing like as much research and innovation as they used to. They are far more concerned with the D, which costs big bucks and is the industry I work in – clinical research. The research and innovation comes from smaller operators (small companies, biotech startups and university tech-transfer spin-outs) who then look to market their IP to pharma companies. The pharma companies, once they spot something with potential, either licence the product and fund the development in return for a share of the profits, or alternatively they buy the IP or even the whole company.
The UK is strong in R, as are the Scandi countries, Benelux and Germany, but it is not a stand-out leader. GSK and AZ are the only ‘British’ big pharma companies, insofar as any multinational company actually has a nationality.
gallois wrote:
That doesn’t mean however that there are not a lot of people in Europe who are pretty p1ssed off with AZ. They’ve been paid and are not coming up with the goods with no acceptable explanation.
How many times? They’ve not been paid in full, the contract is Best Reasonable Efforts, and the explanation is that the biological processes in the plant in Belgium have not given the yields they hoped for. They’re not making widgets, they’re growing stuff. Sometimes it doesn’t grow as well as you’d hoped.
It is not generally useful to get “pretty p1ssed off” with someone who’s making you something on a non-profit basis. I bet AZ wish they’d not bothered.
I just learned that our family GP (for some 20 years) has sadly died of Covid. He was semi-retired, and about to retire fully. He was also a ‘lapsed’ pilot and we often chatted about flying.
That’s really sad.
I think the people who see a lot of people are at such a great risk.
not left no, I think the EU cocked up on this. When they do it needs to be told, improved on and we don’t need to be dogmatic about it. Doesn’t make me anti-EU. I think the EU works. In fact I think it works better now than it did pre-brexit. As Boris would say, there’s teething issues ;-)
Not so sure EU cocked up though, heard today that they will get 20% more of the AZ vaccine than what AZ had said when they warned about reduced capacity. I don’t know exactly it these 20% are linked to the EU strategy, but I guess we will never know… It’s politics anyway…
