Government hits back at claims the UK is ‘back of the queue’ for Covid vaccines
The government has hit back at claims that Britain is “back of the queue” for coronavirus vaccines and denied that there was a “scramble” to secure a supply of the drug being developed by US biotech firm Moderna.
The business department today slammed reports in the Guardian and Metro claiming the UK had failed to secure access to Moderna’s vaccine as “inaccurate” and “misleading”.
Moderna yesterday announced that its experimental Covid vaccine proved 95 per cent in late-stage clinical trials.
But reactions to the news were muted this side of the Atlantic after it emerged Britain had failed to secure a supply for the potential vaccine.
Speaking at the Downing Street press conference last night, health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the UK had signed a deal with Moderna to receive 5m doses of the vaccine following crunch talks yesterday.
One source told the Guardian there was concern Hancock would be “mullered” if the UK failed to secure doses of the new jab.
In a statement released this afternoon, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said: “The UK was already in advanced discussions with Moderna for some time to procure 5m doses of their vaccine. Yesterday we were able to finalise that agreement following the publication of their positive phase three results.”
“As Moderna is currently scaling up their European supply chain, their vaccine was never going to be available in the UK before spring next year — no matter when we ordered it.”
So far, the UK has secured 355m doses of potential vaccines produced by seven different companies.
Business secretary Alok Sharma yesterday said it was important that Britain spread its chances across a range of vaccines because vaccination across the population would not be achieved by a “one-size fits all” drug.
Kate Bingham, chair of the Vaccine Taskforce, said the government body was “ pursuing a portfolio approach to obtaining vaccines for the UK across different vaccine formats, to maximise the chances of finding safe and effective vaccines.”
The UK’s biggest vaccine order is for 100m doses of the drug being developed by Astrazeneca and the University of Oxford.
In a stiff rebuttal of claims the UK was low down on the pecking order for vaccine supplies, Beis today added Britain was “the first country in the world to sign a binding agreement for the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine in July.”
Britain will receive 40m doses of the Pfizer vaccine if it passes safety tests, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged cautious optimism over a potential rollout of the vaccine by the new year.
“The EU [is] yet to formally sign a deal with either developer. If we had joined the EU vaccine programme, the UK would not have secured doses from either Pfizer/Biontech or Moderna at this stage,” it added.
The UK government has not yet released details of how much it paid for the Moderna vaccine. The European commission is understood to have told the company it wants to reach a deal for a price below $25 (£19) a dose.