UK purchases additional 114m vaccine doses

The UK will purchase an additional 114m doses of coronavirus vaccine for use over the next two years, including modified jabs for tackling future variants.

Sajid Javid, health secretary, announced on Wednesday that the contracts included 60m doses of the Moderna vaccine and 54m shots of BioNTech/Pfizer. The Department for Health said it had accelerated the purchasing process following concerns about a possible wave of infections sparked by the Omicron variant.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday pledged to offer all eligible adults in England a Covid-19 booster vaccination by the end of January 2022 in a bid to slow transmission.

The government’s supply arrangements include access to modified vaccines to tackle future variants of concern as well as Omicron. Pharmaceutical manufacturers may have to tweak their existing jabs if the latest variant is shown by trials to evade protection from current vaccines.

Javid said the deal would “future proof” the UK’s vaccination programme. It will “ensure we can protect even more people in the years ahead”, he said.

The latest vaccine purchase follows an order by the government of 35m doses of Pfizer in August that will be delivered in the second half of 2022.

Nine new cases of the Omicron variant were confirmed in England on Tuesday, plus one in Scotland, bringing the respective totals for each country to 22 and 10.

Pfizer has been contracted to deliver 100m doses to the UK by the end of the year. According to FT calculations based on data from the UK’s safety reporting systems, the government has a supply of at least 40m Pfizer shots left, and more than 20m half-dose boosters from Moderna.

UK government scientific advisers have suggested mRNA jabs such as those from Pfizer and Moderna be used in the booster programme, instead of the Oxford/AstraZeneca shots that are in plentiful supply. Government orders include 60m jabs from Novavax, whose vaccines have been submitted for UK regulatory approval.

The government is currently investing to ensure its booster supply up to 2023, following in the footsteps of the EU, which in the spring ordered a shipment of 1.8bn doses for 2022 and 2023.

This week, the UK shortened the gap between second and third doses from six to three months. Mike Ryan, director for emergencies at the World Health Organization, said the UK was in a “luxurious position” compared to other countries where there are shortages of vaccines.