Warning over UK's ability to make vaccines for future biological threats

The UK is poorly prepared to tackle the next Covid-like biological threat, according to an influential cross-party Lords Committee. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has written to the Government to raise concerns about how prepared the UK is for future pandemics, describing the current situation as “troubling”.

Committee chair Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, said experts had raised “troubling concerns about (the UK’s) capacity to manufacture vaccines for future biological threats”.

She said a robust domestic vaccine research, development, and manufacturing sector was a “critically important sovereign capability for security” against looming pandemics similar to Covid-19, which was a factor in the death of just under 227,000 people in the UK.

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“Recent developments raise concerns, and the sector needs renewed focus and Government support to ensure that lessons are learned from the Covid-19 pandemic and capacity retained,” she said.

The committee's letter cites concerns that while the UK was well-placed to develop a world-leading vaccine research and manufacturing sector, it had failed to capitalise on its advantages while other countries had been increasing their investment.

While the committee was told the EU had introduced a scheme to place contracts with four contract manufacturing organisations, for example, to provide a variety of vaccine options, in the UK, some vaccine work had been mothballed and there were concerns that an agreement with Moderna may only cover mRNA solutions.

The committee's letter also refers to evidence heard by