Inside AstraZeneca, a North West pharma powerhouse

'When I started in Block 19 there wasn’t even one computer'

Good morning members — today’s story is about AstraZeneca, the British–Swedish pharmaceutical giant that is firmly in the spotlight at the moment.

Everyone knows about AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine. But thousands of people in the North West also have a personal connection to the company — as employees or former workers.

Zeneca — the British part of the UK-Swedish merger in 1999 that created AstraZeneca — was formed out of the British chemicals company ICI. And for many years, its labs in Cheshire have been a big employer of Greater Manchester residents and students from our universities.

To tell the story of the company’s North West roots, we spoke to two longtime employees and asked them what the company is all about — and how things have changed over the years.