Artificial Intelligence: Vaccine Technology
Debate between Lord Scriven and Lord Vallance of Balham(3 weeks ago)
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Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)
Obviously, the intellectual property that is being laid down as part of this process will belong to the university, the funder to some extent, and the company. The exploitation of IP demands that there is clarity on IP ownership in order to get the inward investment that will be necessary to turn this from what is a very early-stage project into something that might become a product.
Lord Scriven (LD)
My Lords, if a foreign tech firm uses NHS patient data records to train its AI to discover a new vaccine, what mechanisms will the Government put in place to ensure that the NHS is not charged full market price for those vaccines?
Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)
This is precisely why the Health Data Research Service is being set up: to make sure that we have a place where data can be collated properly and accessed in an appropriate way, and that the benefit returns to the NHS and to patients in this country as the data is used.
AstraZeneca
Debate between Lord Scriven and Lord Vallance of Balham(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)
I reassure the noble Lord that the metro mayor was aware of the discussions with AstraZeneca. It is important to remember that AstraZeneca will continue to produce vaccines in Speke. It is not that AstraZeneca has pulled out of there; it is that the new investment has not come there. I have recently been speaking to metro mayors about how we can make sure that the R&D funding is supportive of what metro mayors are trying to achieve.
Lord Scriven (LD)
My Lords, the Minister is a little bit complacent because, as he knows, the investment was for future-generation flu vaccines and not for existing vaccines. As the Lords Science and Technology Committee said recently, this raises “troubling concerns” about the UK’s lack of
“capacity to manufacture vaccines for future biological threats”.
What are the Government doing to ensure a portfolio of vaccine technology can be manufactured in the UK and that we are not just relying on mRNA?
Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord—that is the first time I have been called complacent about vaccines. There is a lot going on: the Moderna investment in a new facility at Harwell; the BioNTech investment; the recent announcement of £60 million by GSK with Oxford; and there is a review of all the vaccine facilities across the country. It is absolutely essential to get this right, as the noble Lord has said, for future pandemic preparedness, as it is a key area. AstraZeneca remains, of course, with its major R&D base in this country, and I will be speaking to it again shortly.