Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what role the UK pharmaceutical industry is playing in the development of a vaccine for the Zika virus.

The United Kingdom pharmaceutical industry will play a leading role in the development of a vaccine for the Zika virus, in collaboration with a range of the UK’s infectious disease experts, who are world leaders in this area.

In the Spending Review, the £1 billion Ross Fund, run jointly by the Department of Health and Department for International Development, includes over £350 million for the development of new vaccines, drugs and diagnostics for infectious diseases.

Particularly noteworthy within this, the UK Vaccine Network, with up to £120 million of funding, brings together industry, academia and Government to finance the development of new vaccines for priority infectious diseases with epidemic potential, including Zika. Indeed, the Network will launch a major funding call to finance the development of vaccines for Zika and other priority diseases at the end of February.