‘We need to address vaccine hesitancy’

‘There’s no question we are in a better position because we have two UK global leading pharmaceutical companies,’ Bingham says.

‘The pharma guys are collaborating in ways they have never collaborated before. The concept of GSK working with [French giant] Sanofi – two arch- rivals in the vaccine business – that’s unusual.

‘But if we had no national capability I think we would be in a much weaker position.’

She explains that it ‘massively matters’ to have our own UK pharma giants because budding biotech entrepreneurs need to learn their craft in laboratories at a major before going it alone at the sort of smaller companies she invests in at SV.

‘ You can’t build a biotech or a vaccine company as a 21- yearold.’ she says. ‘You have to have been there and done it and really experienced how to develop drugs and vaccines. It’s a miracle any vaccine or drug is approved – it’s so difficult.’

Bingham heaps praise on regulators for helping to speed up the vaccine race. But she warns that it might take them a while to read all the data as they try to ensure the highest possible standard of safety.

‘ We know they’ve [ regulators] been incredibly quick to get the trials started, but that’s different from actually looking at 10,000 case report forms or more.

‘So I think we’ve got a shot at getting vaccines at the end of this year, but I think it’s more likely to be next year,’ she adds.

She says the pandemic has created an opportunity for Britain’s regulator, t he Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to become the SEARCHING:

Venture capitalist Kate Bingham says she has to be ruthless go-to regulator around the world, especially after Brexit and its divorce from the European Medicines Agency.

‘The opportunity for the MHRA is to become a globally recognised regulator for the UK, but also externally. For example, these vaccines that are being developed and manufactured i n India or other countries around the world will need a regulator that other countries will recognise.

‘And I think there’s a big opportunity for MHRA to step into that global regulatory role in a way that I suspect the FDA [US Food and Drug Administration] won’t do.’

Bingham’s husband, the MP Jesse Norman, is the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. And Bingham herself is the daughter of Tom