Government rejects Boris Johnson’s £150m pledge to boost UK biological defenses

Last month, Dame Kate Bingham, former chair of the Vaccine Task Force, expressed this concern during a parliamentary committee.

She told MPs the UK was going “backwards” when it came to pandemic preparedness. “The people who understand manufacturing expansion, clinical development, regulatory … all of that is gone,” she said.

Although the UK has invested £160 million in the global “100 Days” initiative, launched at the G7 summit in Cornwall, to develop vaccines, drugs and diagnostics within 100 days of a future outbreak, it is unclear how the program will boost Britain’s own defense.

“I fully support the initiative, but it will be focused on the global response, not specifically on our response to better deal with pandemics,” Professor Bell said. “It is not clear how this money will help the UK prepare its own defences.”

Professor Tom Solomon, director of the University of Liverpool’s Pandemic Institute, added that he “expects the government to provide significant resources” to fund pandemic preparedness commitments at last year’s G7 meeting.

“It appears that the government has no new money or dedicated money to spend in this area,” he said, adding that the UK “needs to invest in diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines so that we have the tools we need to deal with emerging infections. “

The government has been approached for comment.

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