HIV and AIDS: Vaccine

Debate between Baroness Northover and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville

Monday 1st December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Lord, Lord Walton, indicated the real challenges here. This needs basic research, and the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust are best able to assess what may have better prospects. They have stepped up their contributions.

[Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville]

My Lords, I declare an interest as I was the Civil Science Minister at the time when HIV came in. The late Lord Joseph and I had been advised by both the advisory board for the Research Councils and the MRC that there was no way in which research science could keep absolutely on the frontiers of all the subjects which were available to it. When HIV came in, they had to tell us that, unfortunately, research in virology had fallen back. Could my noble friend give us some indication of how far that setback has been repaired in the past 30 years, particularly given the salience of this issue in west Africa at present?

[Baroness Northover]

I just mentioned the level of research and development money going into product development for HIV. I expect the noble Lord will know that Imperial College is leading in this area. I visited the human immunology laboratory at Imperial, which is taking forward vaccine research in a number of different areas. The noble Lord will also know that the number of years it has taken to develop viable vaccines in various areas—10 years for measles, 16 years for hepatitis, 25 years for cervical cancer and 47 years for polio—bears out the particular challenge referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Walton.

Women: Board Membership

Debate between Baroness Northover and Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville

Monday 17th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is quite right. We have an aspiration, as she probably knows, that 50% of appointments to public boards should be women by 2015. I have seen the figures that are just being finalised for the current state of affairs, and it is looking encouraging that we are moving in the right direction, but we are not complacent.

[Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville]

My Lords, Damocles was a man. Will the Government consider a female sword?

[Baroness Northover]

I look to the noble Lord to come up with one.