The United Kingdom is struggling to stock up on supplies of Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, a top UK government official has said.
Kate Bingham, UK Vaccine Taskforce chair stated that the aim of 30 million vaccines by September hadn’t been achieved and she anticipated that the UK would get 4 million doses by 2020 instead. The predictions regarding the availability of vaccine doses were made assuming that everything would work smoothly and that there were no interruptions at all, she states.
She said that the scale-up in manufacturing generally took years to do but instead was moving at exceptional speed, adding that the total 100 million vaccine doses would be delivered in the forthcoming year.
Oxford’s clinical trial chief previously stated that he was hopeful that late-stage trial outcomes of its efficacy could be presented by 2020 and those vaccine doses of the shot are already being made.
In May, the UK government inked a deal with Oxford University/AstraZeneca for 100 million doses of the COVID-19, with 30 million doses expected for delivery by Sept. 2020.
The answer to the question of availability COVID-19 vaccine is arguable for now given that no vaccine presently has been approved for use and clinical trials are still ongoing. AstraZeneca said in the statement that the company was making quick progress to start supplying hundreds of millions of COVID-19 doses on a rolling basis once it gets regulatory approval.
But the regulatory challenges cast doubt on how fast the United Kingdom can deploy vaccines, which pivotal in allowing life to return to normal.
Meanwhile, England has commenced its second nationwide lockdown on Thursday, despite a bruising vote the earlier day in which Prime Minster Boris Johnson’s COVID-19 management strategy was not approved by dozens of his MPs.