Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many new manufacturing facilities the Government has funded in order to facilitate contracts involving the transfer of covid-19 vaccine technology to UK based manufacturers; and whether those new manufacturing facilities will remain in public ownership.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million in securing and scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to this pandemic. This has included:
The Government has step in rights during pandemics at both VMIC and CGTC Braintree.
In addition, the Government has partnered with industry – for example Wockhardt where we have secured fill and finish reservation in the UK to support our vaccine programme.
As a result of these investments, and ongoing support of the Vaccine Taskforce three of the UK's eight COVID-19 vaccines (Oxford/AstraZeneca, Novavax and Valneva) are being or will be manufactured in the UK. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is delivered through a majority UK supply chain. The contracts for supply agreements with these vaccine companies are available on the Contracts Finder website.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many contractual commitments the Government has made with pharmaceutical companies involving the transfer of covid-19 vaccine technology to UK based manufacturers; and if he will publish the terms and conditions of those contracts.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million in securing and scaling up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to this pandemic. This has included:
The Government has step in rights during pandemics at both VMIC and CGTC Braintree.
In addition, the Government has partnered with industry – for example Wockhardt where we have secured fill and finish reservation in the UK to support our vaccine programme.
As a result of these investments, and ongoing support of the Vaccine Taskforce three of the UK's eight COVID-19 vaccines (Oxford/AstraZeneca, Novavax and Valneva) are being or will be manufactured in the UK. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is delivered through a majority UK supply chain. The contracts for supply agreements with these vaccine companies are available on the Contracts Finder website.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Department is taking to support British domestic capacity to produce future vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to this pandemic, as well as any future pandemics. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer-term UK capacity:
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 12 February 2021 to Question 148771, on Vaccines: Manufacturing Industries, what steps he has taken to increase offline vaccine manufacturing infrastructure since the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has provided funding to establish Centres of Excellence for vaccines to expand the UK’s manufacturing capacity and associated advanced therapeutics. The aim is to respond to this pandemic as well as increase the UK’s pandemic preparedness for the future.
Investments which will contribute to our future preparedness include:
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of the £6 billion of additional funding for vaccine development and procurement announced in Budget 2021 will be spent on (a) research and development, (b) manufacturing and (c) procurement; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The UK was the first country in the world to procure, authorise, and start a vaccination programme using the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. The Government has secured access to 457 million doses, across eight different vaccine developers. As of 11 March, over 22.8 million individuals have been vaccinated with a first dose in the UK.
At the Spending Review 2020, the Government announced it had made available more than £6 billion in total to develop, manufacture, and procure COVID-19 vaccines. Of that, we confirmed £733 million in 2021-22 to purchase successful vaccines and £128 million for research and development (R&D) and vaccines manufacturing. Further funding will be allocated from the COVID-19 reserve as needed.
For R&D, we have invested:
At Budget 2021, the Government announced funding of:
For manufacturing, the Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer-term UK capacity:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding from the public purse has been spent on covid-19 vaccine (a) manufacturing and (b) research and development since 1 March 2020; if he will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of that funding spent since 1 March 2020 and the £128 million ringfenced for covid-19 vaccine R&D and manufacturing in Budget 2021; and what proportion of that funding ringfenced in Budget 2021 the Government plans to spend on covid-19 vaccine (i) manufacturing (ii) research and development.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The UK was the first country in the world to procure, authorise, and start a vaccination programme using the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines. The Government has secured access to 457 million doses, across eight different vaccine developers. As of 8 March, over 22.2 million individuals have been vaccinated with a first dose.
At the Comprehensive Spending Review 2020, the Government announced it has made available more than £6 billion in total to develop, manufacture, and procure COVID-19 vaccines. Of that, £733 million in 2021-22 was confirmed to purchase successful vaccines and £128 million was confirmed for the research and development (R&D) of vaccines, as well as their manufacture. Further funding may be allocated from COVID-19 reserves as needed.
On R&D, we have allocated:
At Budget 2021, the Government announced funding of:
On manufacturing,the Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer-term UK capacity:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to increase the UK’s long-term ability to manufacture vaccines.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic, including:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer term UK capacity:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to undertake a strategic review of the role biologics manufacturing could play in pandemic responsiveness and resilience.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Currently the UK does not have the capability or scale to manufacture bulk levels of antibodies; the Vaccine Taskforce identified this as a potential weakness in the UK’s future pandemic response.
As a result, the Government issued a Prior Information Notice in October 2020 to engage with the market to explore how UK antibody manufacturing capability can be developed to secure permanent UK access and build resilience. The findings from the market engagement exercise, and the wider landscape of the pandemic, has resulted in the need for a broader strategic review of the role that biologics manufacturing could play in pandemic responsiveness and resilience.
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale-up the UK’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer term UK capacity and will help in pandemic preparedness:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to increase the UK’s long-term vaccine manufacturing capacity.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scale up the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic. This includes:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer term UK capacity:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to help increase the UK’s covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to meet future needs for that vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has invested over £300 million to secure and scaleup the UK’s manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to the pandemic, including:
a) Facilities that have come online:
b) Facilities that will come online later this year, to help provide longer term UK capacity:
In addition to the above, we have also funded the expansion of the Valneva factory in Livingston, Scotland.