Government in negotiations for ‘Covid variant vaccine’

The Government has entered negotiations to secure a “variant vaccine” adapted to tackle the variant first identified in South Africa, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said this afternoon.

In a speech delivered at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, Hancock said: “There is yet more to do, the work isn’t over yet – we’re still procuring all the time, and planning what we need to keep this country safe, including new vaccines specifically targeted at variants of concern.

“I can tell you today that we’ve started commercial negotiations with AstraZeneca to secure a variant vaccine – future supplies of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that have been adapted to tackle the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa.”

AstraZeneca has said that any future version of its vaccine would need to be approved for use by medicines regulators.

In a statement, the company confirmed AstraZeneca is in discussions with the UK Government “regarding future versions of our Covid-19 vaccine to specifically address variants. We will share more details in due course.”

As of 19 May, 904 cases of the have been identified in the UK – a rise of 41 from the previous week, according to Public Health England data.

Due to concerns over the B.1.351 variant, test and trace experts have acted on cases found in the UK, launching immediate rapid Covid-19 lab tests for people in areas where clusters have been identified.

Surge testing and so-called enhanced contact tracing have been deployed in a number of areas, including parts of London.

Pfizer has previously said that there is currently no evidence that its jab needs updating against current known variants.