Chief AstraZeneca Scientist Josep Baselga Developing Anti COVID-19 Therapies Dies Of Rare Neurological Disease
The chief scientist at AstraZeneca, Josep Baselga who was developing anti COVID-19 therapies based on his experience in cancer has died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease – a rare rapidly evolving degenerative neurological disorder. He was roped in by AstraZeneca after a major scandal broke out since he failed to disclose his vast financial ties to various companies in journal articles.
Josep Baselga was the chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He resigned after a major financial scandal broke out and was roped in by AstraZeneca.
Days after a report by The New York Times and ProPublica revealed Josep Baselga failed to disclose his vast financial ties to various companies in journal articles, he resigned from his position.
Josep Baselga joined the AstraZeneca company at the beginning of 2019, as director of the Cancer Research and Development (R&D) area.
He was based in Gaithesburg (Maryland), in the Washington metropolitan area.
Since the start of the pandemic, he had reoriented part of his research to developing anti-covid therapies based on his experience in cancer.
He died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rapidly evolving degenerative neurological disorder, reported the Spanish outlet La Vanguardia.
Look, CJD kills people fast - but it normally isn’t even DIAGNOSED in 36 days, and most people live at least six months after symptoms appear.
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) March 21, 2021
I understand there are privacy issues here, and people are grieving, but the company is going to need to offer some clarity on this. pic.twitter.com/PrsA3eHkuZ
Born in Barcelona in 1959, he had specialized as an oncologist at the Vall d’Hebron hospital. He decided to expand his training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York, where he focused on treating breast cancer.
There he was at the forefront of the development of molecular therapies against cancer, which represented a revolution in the treatment of tumors.
Unlike radiation therapy and chemotherapy, which attack healthy and diseased cells interchangeably, molecular therapies act selectively against tumor cells.
Passionate about biology, Baselga devoted much of his career to understanding how cancer cells work and finding their vulnerabilities.
He was developing anti-covid therapies for AstraZeneca based on his experience in cancer when he died.
Earlier, the European Union called for an Emergngtonency Vaccine Summit after more than a dozen European nations decided to stop using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine due to serious blood clot incidents reported in many countries.
However, as reported by GreatGameIndia, the Chief Norwegian Investigator and Physician Pal Andre Holme who examined the three hospitalized health workers confirmed that it was indeed the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which caused the rare blood clots due to unexpected immune reaction.
Recently, the U.S. NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) claimed that AstraZeneca provided incomplete and outdated efficacy data from latest COVID-19 trial.
- Source : GreatGameIndia
