How to save the world and get beaten up for it

Since it is in the process of Saving The World, you might think that AstraZeneca would be flying high about now.

A thankful public, led by tearful politicians, would be on their knees in gratitude. Statues on order. Knighthoods in the post.

Instead the company is being slapped around all four corners of the globe it is trying to vaccinate.

Today the Italians joined the EU, the Americans and almost everyone else in having a pop.

Its so-called PR blunders are openly mocked. Politico says it needs to “overcome a series of public relations missteps that have clouded the shot’s reputation and left governments wary”.

I’d say all this is two things: 1) really unfair. 2) partly a result of large drug companies being hopeless at communicating what they do and why they do it.

The easy-to-understand narrative on the pharma industry is that it is a rapacious bunch of greed-heads overcharging Africans for vital medicine in a relentless pursuit of profit.

Boris Johnson hasn’t done them any favours on that score.

If they talked about themselves better, had made more efforts over the years to court public opinion they might be seen as the heroes they probably are.

The typical drug company RNS is incomprehensible to all but a very narrow crowd of nerds.

You can understand why that is – science IS nerdy.

But from experience, if you try to get a drug company to talk in English about what they are up to, they either can’t or won’t.

This probably isn’t entirely or even mostly the fault of the actual PR people.

But Astra should strike back.