Bid to make more jabs in Britain as EU ramps up pressure

MINISTERS are working on plans to accelerate the onshoring of vaccine production to make Britain more selfsufficient amid fears of rising vaccine nationalism.

The news came as Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, upped the ante yesterday in an ongoing dispute with AstraZeneca, threatening to block exports from the bloc if the pharma firm did not start meeting its delivery targets.

Clément Beaune, France’s European affairs minister, reiterated the country’s support for Mrs von der Leyen’s position and insisted that Europe must “defend its interests”.

Under a plan hatched in Whitehall, ministers are now working at pace on bringing more production onshore to prevent the risk that other countries could disrupt the process of getting jabs into British arms.

A No10 source said: “There is a lot of domestic production already. We are always looking at ways we can increase vaccine production in the UK.

“The Government is looking at ways vaccine supplies can be increased all the time.”

Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is understood to have held talks with Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, on how to accelerate production. The EC has been in a standoff with AstraZeneca since January when it became clear that the Swedish-British company would not meet delivery pledges made in its purchase contract.

Mrs von der Leyen wants preliminary discussions of the idea on Thursday at a European Council summit in Brussels.

Yesterday, she intensified her threats, telling Germany’s Funke newspaper group: “We have the option of banning a planned export. That’s the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start supplying to other countries.”

Responding to her remarks, a UK Government source said: “It’s incredibly frustrating that there are 7.2 million unused doses of the Oxford vaccine sitting around in the EU. As the PM has said, vaccines are safe. What isn’t safe is catching Covid.”

Germany, Italy and Denmark have been supportive of the ideas, but the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden and Ireland are concerned that the move could hurt European supply chains and businesses if a vaccines trade war was to escalate.

One Cabinet minister warned that the disparity between protection against the virus in the UK and on the

Continent would only increase as the vaccine rollout continued.

The minister said: “The EU has monumentally ballsed this up. Madness! – And then to play games and have a pop at AstraZeneca through bitterness and opportunism.

“And now it is coming back to bite them because they cannot get their population to take it. We will be the only coronavirus-free country in Europe in August or September.” The new Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire, which will be able to produce tens of millions of jabs a year, is due to open by the end of the year.

The Government is also working with Wockhardt, one of the largest generic pharmaceutical companies, to provide “fill and finish” services.

Other plants are planned for Livingston in Scotland, to produce the Valneva vaccine, and in Darlington. Ministers are also hoping Johnson &

Johnson’s Janssen single-jab vaccine will be approved by regulators in the UK ready for rolling out this summer.

Last week Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said the Government would use a slowdown in supplies next month to “loop back and find as many people in the most vulnerable cohorts as possible” who may have missed their jab.

The EU has been hit by supply problems, with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca initially falling behind on commitments. While production of the Pfizer vaccine has since come back on track, supply issues with AstraZeneca persist.

Mrs Von der Leyen said Europe had only received 30 per cent of the agreed quantity for the first quarter.

Stating that its contract committed AstraZeneca to supplying doses produced in the UK, she added: “We have received nothing from the British, while we are supplying them.”

Yesterday it was announced that half of all adults in the UK had received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine.