BIA reacts to the UK hitting the 15 million vaccination target

Steve Bates OBE, Chief Executive of the BIA said: “This fantastic news is down to the strong triple helix partnership between industry, academia and government that has developed through COVID-19 vaccine work, where the UK industry began in February 2020 to understand how we could manufacture and scale up a successful COVID-19 vaccine. The foresight and leadership of Kate Bingham was pivotal in securing these vaccines last summer, giving the NHS and PHE critical lead in time to understand how to deploy these complex products.

 

This early collaboration work has meant the UK Vaccine Taskforce has established a UK supply chain for the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine and made further investments into future vaccine manufacturing capability, such as the Cell and Gene Manufacturing Innovation Centre at Braintree and the new centre of excellence for mRNA vaccines at CPI in Darlington. Our task as an industry is to continue to work with government to ensure we have a strong medicine manufacturing base here in the UK, with the right facilities and people, to help deliver innovative treatments for patients and create highly skilled jobs to support the UK’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic."

 

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. For more information please contact Shannon Quinney, Communications Executive on [email protected] or 07864 902930.