Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to increase the global production of covid-19 vaccines.

The UK is committed to working with industry and international organisations to facilitate expanded manufacturing of affordable COVID-19 vaccines at scale. UK funding of £250 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and our £548 million contribution to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), supported vaccine development partnerships and procurement for global vaccines access respectively. We welcome that COVAX has convened a Supply Chains and Manufacturing Taskforce to identify immediate and longer-term actions for increasing the volume and security of global vaccine supply.

Building vaccine manufacturing capacity is a long term, capital intensive, and high-risk endeavour. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is working with the African Union and international partners, such as CEPI, Gavi, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as development finance institutions and the private sector to catalyse investments for vaccine manufacturing in Africa. The UK contributed to the development of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine. AZ produces the vaccine at scale through global manufacturing partnerships, and provides it at a non-profit price to low and middle-income countries.