Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what risk assessment he has carried out on bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies for covid-19 vaccine candidates on the effect on availability of covid-19 vaccine candidates for healthcare workers and vulnerable groups throughout the world.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK’s bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies for covid-19 vaccines include funding for research and development, investment in manufacturing and vaccine trials. This investment supports the global scale up of vaccine production and therefore the quantity of vaccines available for healthcare workers and vulnerable groups globally. The UK is a strong supporter of the multilateral Covid-19 Global Vaccine Access Facility (COVAX) initiative as a means to both get vaccines for the UK population and ensure equitable global access. The UK announced that it will contribute up to £500 million for the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment, which will give lower and middle-income countries equitable access to vaccines that are developed.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish the terms of agreement between Oxford and AstraZeneca for their covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
We are not able to disclose details of this agreement because of the commercially confidential nature of the contracts between the Government and vaccine manufacturers while commercial negotiations are ongoing.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
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 has taken to ensure that any covid-19 vaccines are sold at cost and are accessible to (a) low-income and (b) middle-income countries.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK’s bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies for covid-19 vaccines include funding for research and development, investment in manufacturing and vaccine trials. This investment supports the global scale up of vaccine production and therefore the quantity of vaccines available for low and middle-income countries. The UK is a strong supporter of the multilateral Covid-19 Global Vaccine Access Facility (COVAX) initiative as a means to both get vaccines for the UK population and ensure equitable global access. The UK announced that it will contribute up to £500 million for the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment, which will give lower and middle-income countries equitable access to vaccines that are developed.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the veracity of reports that (a) AstraZeneca's no profit pricing commitment for the covid-19 vaccine will expire when that company declares the pandemic is over and (b) that company's contract for vaccine development permits declaration of the end of the covid-19 pandemic in July 2021.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The timings or nature of any commitments regarding vaccine pricing are for the parties involved.
The World Health Organisation declared a coronavirus pandemic on 11 March 2020, and we would expect it in due course to declare a move to a post-pandemic period as it has done previously for the H1N1 pandemic in 2010.