On Monday, 21st July, Business Secretary Alok Sharma announced that the UK government has signed various deals and has access to 90 million doses of promising coronavirus vaccines.
Sharma highlighted that the government had agreed to significant partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and vaccine companies BioNTech/Pfizer and Valneva that are developing vaccines to protect people against Covid-19. He said,
“The hunt to find a vaccine is a truly global endeavour and we are doing everything we can to ensure the British public get access to a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible.
“This new partnership with some of the world’s foremost pharmaceutical and vaccine companies will ensure the UK has the best chance possible of securing a vaccine that protects those most at risk.
“By signing up and participating in important clinical studies, together we can speed up the search for a vaccine and end the pandemic sooner.”
UK has now the most likely chance of getting access to a safe and effective vaccine at the “quickest speed”. It has also secured access to treatments containing COVID-19 neutralising antibodies from AstraZeneca to protect those who cannot receive vaccines, such as cancer and immunocompromised patients. Alongside, the new vaccine registry website will allow members of the public to register their interest and be contacted to participate in clinical studies. To enable large-scale vaccine studies to take place across the UK, the aim is to get 500,000 people signed up by October, which is considered vital in the fight against coronavirus.
Additionally, the government has an agreement with AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford to research, develop and manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine for the UK in partnership with the Serum Institute of India. AstraZeneca will work to produce 100 million doses for the UK in total for the vaccine which has shown some promising results in human trials.
Initial trials of the Oxford vaccine has showed promising results in developing white blood cells and T-cell immune responses with the strongest response among people who received two doses.
“The global programme is made up of a Phase III trial in the US enrolling 30,000 patients, a paediatric study, as well as Phase III trials in low-to-middle income countries including Brazil and South Africa which are already underway,” the university has said in a release.
As part of a wider £131 million investment by the government, support has been given to the Oxford University’s vaccine project as well as one by Imperial College London, which started human studies in June.
The three different vaccine classes that the UK government has secured to date include adenoviral vaccines (Oxford University and AstraZeneca), mRNA vaccines (Imperial College London and BioNTech/Pfizer) and inactivated whole virus vaccines (Valneva).
