Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March to Question 119469 on Cancer: Vaccination, how many pharmaceutical companies have been contacted by his Department with details of the expansion of eligibility of the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad since May 2025.

The Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) is a platform that is increasing access and speeding up recruitment to clinical trials for personalised cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. In 2025, the scope of the CVLP was expanded beyond personalised cancer vaccines to also include other immunotherapies. NHS England is responsible for the overall delivery of the CVLP and has contracted the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit to manage the day-to-day delivery of the platform.

The platform is designed to be company and clinical trial agnostic so any company can contact the CVLP to explore how the platform can support their research. NHS England hosted a webinar with interested pharmaceutical companies in 2025 after the expansion of the scope had been agreed, and continues to engage with companies through multiple avenues, including working with the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Vaccine Innovation Pathway.