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By Alistair Smout
LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Britain's initial doses of the
COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by AstraZeneca and
Oxford University will come from Europe rather than a domestic
supply chain, the country's Vaccine Taskforce said.
The "vast, vast, vast majority" - over 80% - of the 100
million doses AstraZeneca will produce for the United Kingdom
will be made there, Ian McCubbin, manufacturing lead for the
Vaccine Taskforce, said, but this year's first batches will not.
"The initial supply and it's a little bit of a quirk of the
programme actually comes from the Netherlands and Germany," he
told reporters.
"But once that's supplied, which we expect will be all by
the end of this year, then the remainder of the supply will be a
UK supply chain."
The vaccine is manufactured by two British firms - Oxford
BioMedica and Cobra Biologics - with another company, Wockhardt,
providing fill and finish capability in what McCubbin said was
"a completely integrated UK supply chain".
McCubbin said he expected the European vaccines to be
delivered this year, which could help to minimise any disruption
from Brexit.
Military aircraft have been put on standby to help to
deliver vaccines should there be chaos at the ports if Britain
fails to agree a trade deal with the European Union before the
end of the year.
Britain is hopeful that regulatory approval for
AstraZeneca/Oxford's immunisation could come in the next two
weeks, its health minister said on Tuesday as Pfizer/BioNTech's
rival vaccine candidate was rolled out.
Although questions remain around the final data on
AstraZeneca's candidate, which has between 62% and 90% efficacy
depending on the dosing regime used compared to 95% efficacy for
Pfizer, it is easier to store and distribute than Pfizer's.
Kate Bingham, chair of the taskforce, said that Britain
would next year start trials using combinations of different
kinds of vaccine for the initial and booster vaccinations, in
the hope that a "mix-and-match" approach might maximise the
immune response.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Barbara Lewis)
