The sale of a centre designed to prepare Britain for future Pandemics has been urged to be retained by ministers.
The Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), near Oxford, which has benefited from millions in public funding during its development, has been the subject of some senior medical figures privately raising concerns.
John Bell, who has held a number of influential roles in the government, said that the vaccine manufacturing capabilities of the centre might be best placed in the hands of a large pharmaceutical company. The original vision for VMIC should be maintained, as he added that a facility looking at vaccine innovation and trialling should be maintained.
He said the worry was here. A big pharmaceutical company could come in and make routine vaccines. That is fine. The whole purpose of this was to enable innovation so that we could have novel vaccines when we needed them. The AstraZeneca vaccine came from that kind of thinking.
The real risk is that we lose the ability to do the early phase stuff that would allow us to use the adenoviruses to make really good vaccines. There are a lot of new vaccine platforms at very early stages of development that need to be evaluated in the original vision for the VMIC. If you lose that part of the puzzle, you lose a crucial part of the puzzle. There is a chance that that will get fudged. I think that would be a problem.
In an Observer interview in November, Clive Dix, the former head of the government's vaccine task force, said that he had seen no evidence that his plans for preparing the country for future Covid variant were being followed. He said that the UK was no longer on the front foot in tackling the epidemic.
The original chair of the vaccine taskforce, Kate Bingham, has claimed that the innovative approach taken when the Pandemic arrived has closed over.
The innovative approach taken when the Pandemic arrived has closed over. David Hartley/Rex/Shutterstock
Several companies submitted bids for the VMIC. The establishment was announced by the government in order to develop vaccines in the UK. Covid's manufacturing capabilities became the priority as plans were changed. The opening was brought forward to next year because it was scheduled to open in 2023.
The best use for the facility was to have VMIC in the hands of a large pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Bell wants more time to consider how an innovation centre for vaccines could be retained. I am not sure if they have thought about that very hard, that would be a really interesting idea.
The government can sell the scale-up facility to the public and then use the money to continue with the original small-scale innovation idea. We are going to set it up again and take 18 months to build it. I think that would be the best solution.
VMIC is a private company and the government is working with them to make sure the UK retains its vaccine manufacturing capability. The UK has invested over $400 million to secure and scale up its manufacturing capabilities to be able to respond to future Covid-19 and future Pandemics.
