Vaccine Innovation in the UK: SMEs and National Capabilities

Posted on: 18/12/2020

An article has been published in European Pharmaceutical Review, by KTN's Dr Gabriela Juárez Martínez and Dr Marcel Kuiper, summarising the UK Government's investment in vaccine innovation.

After nine months of lockdown, we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel, with a handful of vaccines that have reached emergency approval such as the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and with forty-six vaccine candidates in Phase 1-3 clinical trials. The latter list includes two UK candidates, LNP-nCoVsaRNA from Imperial College London (Phase 1/2) and AZD1222 from the University of Oxford; AstraZeneca; IQVIA and Serum Institute of India (Phase 3). 

The development of vaccines against Covid-19 in 11 months compared to what usually takes years has demonstrated the power of collaboration between academia, industry and governments. However, this historical achievement was only possible because many countries have consistently invested in R&D and infrastructure to develop platform technologies and manufacturing techniques to support vaccine development against many other pathogens.

In the article Vaccine innovation in the UK: SMEs and national capabilities, published in European Pharmaceutical Review, Dr Gabriela Juárez Martínez and Dr Marcel Kuiper from the KTN Health Team summarise the UK Government investment in vaccine innovation, telling the story of the two UK Covid-19 vaccine candidates and introduce the UK SMEs and UK capabilities that are working to tackle the current pandemic and improve the UK’s preparedness for future outbreaks.

Over the years, KTN has been proud to use its deep expertise and powerful connections to support organisations contributing to vaccine innovation. If you are shaping the future of vaccines and would like to find out more, please contact Gabriela, Marcel, or one of their Health Team colleagues.

You can read the article in full here.

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