Vaccination: Manufacturing Industries

(asked on 22nd February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2021 to Question 89572 on Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, what steps his Department is taking as a result of those discussions to ensure the UK’s resilience against future disease pandemics and variants.


Answered by
George Freeman Portrait
George Freeman
This question was answered on 2nd March 2022

The Vaccine Taskforce and UK Research and Innovation are engaged with the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), which is a private company, as well as with other companies, to ensure the UK has a strong domestic vaccine manufacturing capability to contribute to the UK’s resilience against COVID-19 and other future health emergencies. Details of the sale process are commercially sensitive.

The Government has invested over £380 million to date in the UK’s onshore vaccine manufacturing capacity and capability. At the recent Autumn Budget, and as part of the ‘living with COVID-19’ plan, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a further £354 million for UK life sciences. This includes funding to strengthen UK vaccine manufacturing resilience for the COVID-19 response, including COVID-19 variants, and potential future health emergencies, among other projects.

Reticulating Splines