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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Government's bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies for covid-19 vaccine candidates on (a) the quantity of vaccine candidates that the Covid-19 Global Vaccine Access Facility can procure for low and middle income countries and (b) the availability of covid-19 vaccine candidates for healthcare workers and vulnerable groups globally.

The UK’s bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies for Covid-19 vaccines include funding for research and development, investment in manufacturing and vaccine trials. This investment supports the global scale up of vaccine production and therefore the quantity of vaccines available for low and middle-income countries as well as for healthcare workers and vulnerable groups globally. The UK is a strong supporter of the multilateral Covid-19 Global Vaccine Access Facility (COVAX) initiative as a means to both get vaccines for the UK population and ensure equitable global access. The UK has contributed £48 million to COVAX already to help ensure vaccines are available in lower income countries.