The success of the UK’s response to covid-19 has come with industry and academia collaborating at speed, along with government support for a nimble, empowered UK Vaccine Taskforce, well equipped to evaluate potential vaccine candidates and free to secure contracts outside of Brexit–negotiating volume, pricing and delivery. This allowed the UK to go it alone in picking the best bets, unencumbered by and several months ahead of the EU. With help from Cobra Biologics (Staffordshire) and Oxford Biomedica (Oxford), both of which are now making the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the UK started scaling up manufacturing in February 2020, months ahead of signing a contract in May.
“Secrets of the Vaccine Taskforce’s Success” (The Spectator–Feb 6, 2021)
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