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Profile: Kate Bingham

Kate Bingham

BBC Radio 4 - Profile, Kate Bingham

The life and career of Kate Bingham, former head of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce

An in-depth look at the life and career of Kate Bingham, who was head of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce

Kate Bingham took on one of the hardest jobs in the Covid pandemic - finding and procuring the necessary vaccines to stop people dying. A venture capitalist who invests in new drugs, she got the call from the Prime Minister who asked her to chair the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce. Once she had worked out which vaccines to back and order in advance, she and her team had to get the systems in place to roll them out in record time. Before this she had spent 30 years in private equity in the city, which she has now returned to. 

Described by many as "a force of nature" she defied critics and sceptics and successfully secured 350 million doses of six different vaccines which started going into people's arms at the end of last year. The number of doses administered in the UK has now past 60 million and everyone over the age of 30 is being offered the jab. 

Via in depth interviews with close friends and colleagues from throughout her life and commentators, Mark Coles reveals the character behind the woman responsible for securing a pipe-line of Covid vaccines for the UK population. 

Presenter: Mark Coles
Researcher: Stefania Okereke
Studio manager: James Beard
Programme co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Producer: Jim Frank and Caroline Bayley
Editor: Richard Vadon and Alex Lewis

Photo Credit: Tom Kates

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