Last checked at 
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Britain had no choice but to
agree to bear liability if claims were made against vaccine
makers as part of supply deals, officials said on Monday, adding
that approval for three of the candidates procured showed their
overall approach had paid off.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Britain is in "a race
against time" to roll out COVID-19 vaccines as deaths hit record
highs and hospitals run out of oxygen.
Last month, a National Audit Office report found that
Britain had offered indemnities to pharmaceutical firms as part
of its agreements to procure COVID-19 vaccine candidates, ahead
of regulatory approval.
Officials involved in the purchases said it was a "red line"
for the manufacturers that they should be offered either
statutory protection or some form of liability cover if they
were to produce the vaccines for Britain.
"This was something that wasn't a choice," Kate Bingham, who
was chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce when Britain secured its
first vaccine supply deals, told lawmakers.
"We either managed to agree some level of indemnity with the
different vaccine suppliers, or we wouldn't be securing that
vaccine at all."
Britain has agreed supply deals for seven different types of
vaccine candidate, totalling 367 million doses, for at least 3.7
billion pounds ($4.93 billion).
Three vaccine candidates, developed by Pfizer and
BioNTech, the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca
, and Moderna, have received regulatory approval
for use in Britain. The Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca
shots are being rolled out.
"If we did not make that investment, then you would not have
vaccines available at the point of regulatory approval," said
Nick Elliott, former Director General of the Vaccine Taskforce.
"Looking at the overall value for money business case of the
vaccines, if weighed against the cost of the pandemic, it only
takes one of those vaccines to be successful to vastly recover,
for the taxpayer, the investment that's being made at risk."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
