Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department is having with other countries to accelerate the development of a covid-19 vaccine.

The United Kingdom, through the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for International Development, has committed £250 million in total to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) who are key in coordinating international efforts towards developing a COVID-19 vaccine, alongside CEPI’s existing epidemic research portfolio.

For COVID-19 research, CEPI are working to improve our understanding of the virus and to develop vaccines, including eight potential vaccine candidates. This includes one project at the University of Oxford. The aim is to advance COVID-19 vaccine candidates into clinical testing as quickly as possible.