PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Coronavirus: Vaccination (21 April 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) funding and (b) other resources the Government is allocating to the search for (a) a vaccine and (b) different treatment options for covid-19.

Asked by:
Christian Wakeford (Labour)

The Government has announced a total of £42.5 million to support clinical trials of vaccines being developed at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. This funding is in addition to the £25 million committed through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Covid-19 Rapid Response Research Call¹. The NIHR and UKRI have also jointly launched a Rapid Response rolling call for proposals to address evidence gaps and needs on COVID-19, which builds on the earlier NIHR-UKRI COVID-19 research initiatives.

Building on existing trial capability, national platform trials have been expanded to test the most promising therapeutics candidates as large Phase III clinical trials. This currently includes the PRINCIPLE, RECOVERY and REMAP-CAP trials which cover primary, acute and intensive care settings.

A cross-Government Vaccines Taskforce has been established to coordinate and accelerate the development and manufacture of a COVID-19 vaccine, in partnership with academia and industry, and look at other therapeutic options.

The Government has also contributed £250 million of United Kingdom aid, the biggest donation of any country, to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to support ongoing work to rapidly develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Note:

¹ https://www.ukri.org/news/covid-19-research-boosted-by-new-projects/

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
4 May 2020