Covid-19: Businesses and the Private Sector

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs. I will focus here on the UK pharmaceutical sector. We have the fifth and sixth-largest global pharmaceutical companies in the UK—GSK and AstraZeneca—with other international companies also operating here. We have long been regarded as strong in this field, closely allied to strengths in our universities. However, we employ fewer people in the sector than is the case in France and Germany, which employ almost double the number of people that we do.

As a DfID Minister during the Ebola crisis, I was immensely impressed by the work of Oxford University’s Jenner Institute. I am delighted that both Oxford and Imperial are currently among world leaders in vaccine research. AstraZeneca has partnered with the Jenner Institute for large-scale manufacture and distribution.

I note that the United Kingdom would get early access to the Jenner vaccine, if successful in clinical trials, but also that the vaccine would be destined for low and middle-income countries. That is vital. Could the Minister explain how this will work? Is industry engaging on the potential Imperial vaccine?

AstraZeneca and GSK have set up a testing lab at Cambridge University. They are helping the national testing centres, particularly in automation and robotics. AstraZeneca is part of the R&D platform to fast-track research into potential treatments, and both companies are working on antibody developments. All of this is very encouraging, for now and the future.

I therefore ask the Minister: what assessment has been made of the impact on the UK pharmaceutical sector and our leading research institutes of leaving the EU with no deal at the end of this year?