£84m in funding as vaccine search goes on
THE government is to put another £84 million into the hunt for a vaccine against the new coronavirus disease Covid-19.
Business Secretary Alok Sharma announced the new funding at the daily briefing from Downing Street yesterday afternoon.
He said part of the money would go towards the two ongoing front-running trials being carried out by Oxford University and Imperial College London.
But he said that while the government has now invested more than £250 million in the hunt for a vaccine one may never be found.
“So we also need to look at other drug treatments and therapeutics for those who get the virus,” he said at the Downing Street daily briefing.
He said the government is working with scientists in the collaborative UK programme Accord to find a drug.
“Today I can report six drugs have entered initial live clinical trials,” he said.
“If positive results are seen they will advance to larger-scale trials.”
He said the money would also be used to mass-produce any successful vaccine – with AstraZeneca ready to work with Oxford University to produce 30 million doses by September and 100 million in total.
Mr Sharma said the UK would get the vaccine first.
He also said that six drugs are currently being tested to see if they can help treat coronavirus.
Mr Sharma said the clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine at the University of Oxford is progressing well.
He said: “In order to definitively conquer this disease we need to find a safe, workable vaccine.
“Last month I announced a new vaccine task force to co-ordinate the efforts of government, academia and industry in the critical mission to find a vaccine.
“I’m very proud of how quickly our scientists and researchers have come together in their efforts developing a vaccine that will combat coronavirus.”
He added: “The first clinical trial of the Oxford vaccine is progressing well, with all phase-one participants having received their vaccine dose on schedule earlier this week.
“The speed at which Oxford University has designed and organised these complex trials is genuinely unprecedented.”
Mr Sharma said Imperial College London was also “making good progress” and would look to move into clinical trials for a vaccine by midJune, with larger-scale trials in October.
He said so far the government had invested £47 million in the Oxford and Imperial vaccine programmes, and announced a further £84 million in new funding “to help accelerate their work”.
He said: “This new money will help mass-produce the Oxford vaccine so that if current trials are successful we have dosages to start vaccinating the UK population straightaway.”
He said pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca had finalised a “global licensing agreement” with Oxford University with government support, adding: “This means that if the vaccine is successful AstraZeneca will work to make 30 million doses available by September for the UK as part of an agreement for over 100 million doses in total.”
He said “the UK will be first to get access” but that the government would also ensure that “we’re able to make the vaccine available to developing countries at the lowest possible cost”.
Mr Sharma has announced the
UK’s first vaccines manufacturing innovation centre is expected to open in summer 2021, a year ahead of schedule.
Speaking at yesterday’s Downing Street press conference, he said: “To further support our domestic manufacturing capabilities last month, I announced the government would accelerate building the UK’s first vaccines manufacturing innovation centre, which is based at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
“And today I can announce we will invest up to a further £93 million in the centre, ensuring that it opens in summer 2021, a full 12 months ahead of schedule.
“The centre, which is already under construction, will have capacity to produce enough vaccine doses to serve the entire UK population in as little as six months.”
The Department of Health said its figures showed 34,636 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Saturday, up by 170 from 34,466 the day before.
In the 24-hour period up to 9am yesterday, 91,206 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 3,142 testing positive, but for technical reasons Northern Ireland cases were not included.
Overall a total of 2,580,769 tests have been carried out, and 243,303 cases have been confirmed positive, not including the most recent Northern Ireland tests.