Vaccine king who backs New Labour

By Charles Begley

04 August 2002

Paul Drayson's first business break was figuring out how to make biscuits in fancy shapes. He now runs one of the most successful pharmaceutical firms in Britain, has a paper fortune of £87m and can count Tony Blair among his friends.

He is said to have changed his Tory political allegiances after the establishment of New Labour and is now a member of the party

He was educated privately at St Dunstan's College in London and was awarded a PhD in robotics at Aston University before joining Rover Cars.

His first major coup was in 1991, when he led a management buy-out of Lambourne Foods, a subsidiary of the Trebor confectionary company. He devised a biscuit snack called a Scoople, which boosted the value of the company so that when it was sold Drayson made £250,000.

In 1993 he co-founded PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, now Britain's largest vaccine manufacturer. The City has loved him ever since. Equity analyst Julie Simmonds, from the firm Beeson Gregory, said: "He is seen as a dynamic character very much with his own mind. He's been a huge driving force in the success of PowderJect, which has a very good future ahead of it, with or without him at the helm. "

His passion for work, he says, stems from a commitment to developing much-needed drugs, having suffered from asthma as a child. He lives in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, with his wife, Elspeth, and four children.

He is a staunch defender of the right of companies to carry out animal testing, and has also suggested that the BBC television soap opera EastEnders should include a storyline on the MMR vaccine to counter parents' fears that it could be linked to autism.

But with his success and outspoken views has come media scrutiny and the deluge of bad publicity that has surrounded his business dealings with the Government.

"The criticism does make you realise how visible you are," he has said. "If you screw up, everyone knows about it and that's how it should be. That's the challenge."

His donations to the Labour Party fall far short of the £1.2m he gave to his local hospital.

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