Alumni

Dr Lovatt lead the team at Glasgow based SGS Vitrology to play a pivotal role during the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting early vaccine development, scale-up and mass production role out.

In February 2020, SGS pioneered a rapid and safe testing strategy for a COVID-19 vaccine. In December, SGS committed to increasing its biosafety testing capacity, with a £10 million investment, to support the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines throughout 2021 and 2022. SGS tested and certified thousands of vaccine batches by mid-2022, which corresponds to billions of doses given to the global population.

This exceptional work was recognised at the Scottish Life Sciences Awards 2023, where the team won the Business Leadership Award for their commitment, ambition, and entrepreneurship. Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Glasgow and Chief Scientist (Health) for the Scottish Government provided the keynote address at the awards.

Dr Lovatt was thrilled to receive the Award on behalf of everyone at SGS in Glasgow. He said: “This award is a reflection of the entire team’s hard work during an incredibly trying period. Their dedication and resilience have directly benefited billions of people globally. We’re incredibly proud to have played our part in creating a vaccine that helped save lives during an event as unprecedented as the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Find out more about the work of SGS in the development of biopharmaceutical products to accelerate global health solutions.

 

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First published: 20 July 2023