Lords Science and Technology Committee warns of "troubling concerns" about UK's capacity to manufacture vaccines for future biological threats

In a letter to Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, said experts had raised “troubling concerns about (the UK’s) capacity to manufacture vaccines for future biological threats”.

She said a resilient, domestic vaccine research and development and manufacturing sector was a “critically important sovereign capability for security” against the next pandemic.

“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 peers that the US and Japan were researching oral and intranasal vaccines which might be easier to distribute and may induce stronger immunity in mildly infected people, which might stop a virus transmission.

Among those who gave evidence to the committee were several experts who played prominent roles in developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, including Professor Catherine Green OBE, co-author with Dame Sarah Gilbert of the book Vaxxers. The Committee heard that Prof Green’s facility, one of the few in the country that can manufacture the first batch of vaccine doses for clinical trials, still relied on inconsistent grant funding for its continued operations. The experts warned that the UK could not take for granted the ability to manufacture vaccines for future pandemics, and expressed concern about its preparedness to do so for future outbreaks.

The Lords Science and Technology Committee makes four recommendations:

• The UK’s vaccine manufacturing and R&D sector must be kept active to ensure skilled teams and supply chains are ready to scale-up in a crisis. This could be achieved, it says, by establishing a ‘peacetime vaccines taskforce’ which would procure vaccines to address outbreaks across the world and maintain the UK’s vaccine production capacity
• The Government should provide regular updates on the UK Biological Security Strategy’s work and conduct regular pandemic preparedness exercises
• The UK must support a portfolio of difference vaccine technologies as there are concerns that the Government may end up being over-reliant on one partnership with Moderna and one technology in the messenger RNA platform
• University-based research facilities and partnerships should be funded on a longer-term basis

The committee’s letter says a relatively modest ongoing strategic investment in maintaining the UK's vaccine R&D and manufacturing sector would “pay huge dividends in the next crisis”.

It also sets out a summary of the evidence it received, including from Lord Vallance, the Minister for Science, and more detailed conclusions and recommendations. The committee asks the Government to respond by February 5, 2025.

Read the letter