Sir Menelas Pangalos, AstraZeneca

“If I can think about one of the major changes that I have made since I joined AstraZeneca just over 10 years ago, it’s to be outwardly focussed rather than inwardly focussed... We were very good at personal bests because we were always inwardly focussed.”
— Sir Menelas Pangalos

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Sir Menelas Pangalos, the VP of BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from UCL and has previously worked at Wyeth and Pfizer. We spoke about the importance of collaboration with academia, how AstraZeneca’s drug development success rate has increased in recent years and how they make sure medicines are accessible to all.


Here’s the link to sign up for the BBMS conference on "scientific and technological advances in healthcare crises" (March 2021): http://bbms2021.eventbrite.co.uk/


This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

  1. Background - 1:37

  2. Importance of collaboration - 6:28

  3. Biggest barriers for pharmaceutical companies - 17:07

  4. Making medicines accessible - 22:46

  5. Career highlights - 29:18


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