Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Tuesday 25th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

This is where nirsevimab is very promising, in that it gives six months’ protection. The problem with the previous jab is that it needed monthly injections and was only 50% effective. We are talking about 70%-plus effective now, which makes it more practical to have that sort of rollout. To date, we have been looking at the very targeted group of 75 year-olds only, particularly as each course costs £2,000 and has to be given monthly over the winter months. Now that we are opening up to this injection, which is much cheaper and lasts for six months, we can look at a broader range, and then there is a much more general education programme to go with it.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister comment more generally on vaccine manufacturing in the UK, which comes into play here? During Covid, we learned that having our own vaccine manufacturing capacity was important. Is that the Government’s position going forward?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The noble Lord is correct. I have two good examples of that, BioNTech and Moderna, where as part of commercial arrangements for us to buy large amounts of Covid vaccines from them they are making investments in UK plants. It will not always be practical, but those examples are billion pound-plus investments which I think we all agree are welcome news.