The long-awaited Moderna coronavirus vaccine will be dished out in Britain within the next two weeks, No10’s vaccine minister revealed today.
Nadhim Zahawi said the first batch of the jab — approved by regulators in January — is set to arrive in the third week of this month, with ‘more volume’ expected in May.
Ministers had promised Moderna’s vaccine, which uses mRNA technology such as Pfizer’s, would arrive by the spring. Britain has ordered 17million doses.
But confusion erupted over Moderna’s supply today, after Nicola Sturgeon revealed the first batch of doses arrived yesterday. If Scotland’s First Minister is telling the truth, it means the UK is currently sitting on thousands of vaccines that are proven to work.
The welcome boost to the vaccine roll-out came as Valneva’s Covid jab — which has also been bought by No10 — was shown to trigger antibodies in all volunteers who received a high dose in early-stage trials.
Scientists testing the jab added they identified no safety concerns, and that it would now move to final phase three trials, with the view of submitting it for approval in the autumn.
Britain has already ordered 100million doses of the jab — which contains a destroyed version of the real coronavirus — which are being made in Scotland.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock heralded today’s results as ‘fantastic’ and showing a ‘strong immune response’. ‘This is another boost to British life science,’ he added.
Mr Zahawi said the results were ‘very promising’ and provided ‘renewed hope’ that a jab using an inactivated virus could spark immunity.
Bosses of Valneva, which is headquartered in France, added they were also looking at ways to tweak their jab to protect against future variants, which may be able to dodge immunity.
More than 31million Brits have already received their first dose of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, which were the first to be approved in the UK.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi pictured receiving his Covid jab. He said today they are expecting the first doses of the long-awaited Moderna jab to arrive this month
But confusion erupted over Moderna’s supply today, after Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed the first batch of doses arrived yesterday
It came as Valneva said its Covid vaccine was 100 per cent effective at triggering antibodies among all those who received a high dose. It will now move to phase 3 trials
Announcing the impending arrival of the Moderna vaccine, Mr Zahawi told BBC Breakfast: ‘It will be in deployment around the third week of April in the NHS and we will get more volume in May as well.
‘And of course more volume of Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca and we have got other vaccines. We have got the Janssen — Johnson and Johnson — vaccine coming through as well.
‘So I am confident that we will be able to meet our target of mid-April offering the vaccine to all over-50s and then end of July offering the vaccine to all adults.’
Despite Mr Zahawi saying the vaccine won’t be deployed until later this month, Ms Sturgeon said Scotland had already received its first batch of the jab.
Scotland is due to receive more than one million of the 17million doses ordered by the UK.
The First Minister also said that the doses have already been factored into forward planning for the vaccination programme, and will be delivered over the coming months.
Addressing today’s coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, she said: ‘The arrival of this first batch doesn’t mean that we are able to accelerate the vaccination programme.
‘The speed of vaccination is already taking account of the expected Moderna supplies.
‘Nevertheless the fact that we now have three vaccines in use is clearly very welcome and it does give us additional security of supply, which is important.’
Valneva said its phase one and two trials involved 153 British volunteers aged 18 to 55, who received two doses of a low, medium or high amount three weeks apart.
Participants were then monitored for any side-effects and had their blood tested for antibodies two weeks after getting the second dose.
All those who received a high dose had antibodies, but only 89.8 per cent of those who were administered a medium shot had them. No figures were given for the low dose.
It is not clear what constituted a low, medium or high dose of the vaccine.
No safety concerns were reported following vaccination for any of the doses. Only two volunteers said they suffered a headache or fatigue shortly after getting the jab.
Company bosses said they would move the high dosing regimen to phase three trials, involving more than 4,000 participants, with results expected this autumn.
The vaccine manufacturer expects data from these trials to be available by the autumn, allowing their jab to be submitted to Britain’s regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for approval.
Doses are already being made in Livingston, West Lothian, ahead of getting the green light with the first 60million doses expected to be delivered by the end of this year.
They will be put into vials in a process called ‘fill and finish’ at a factory in Sweden.
Valneva is also behind the Japanese encephalitis vaccine, which is 90 per cent effective at halting symptomatic infections of the virus.
Heralding the results, Mr Hancock said: ‘The UK Government has funded these clinical trials and it is fantastic to see Valneva’s vaccine produces a strong immune response.
‘This vaccine will be made onshore in Livingston in Scotland, giving another boost to British life science, and if approved will play an important role in protecting our communities. I look forward to seeing the results of the upcoming phase 3 trial.’
And Mr Zahawi added: ‘These results are very promising and provide renewed hope that a vaccine using a whole inactivated virus might provide strong protection against variants.
‘If the results from the phase three clinical trials are positive and the vaccine meets the robust standards of safety, quality and effectiveness of our medicines regulator, the MHRA, this will be another powerful weapon in our arsenal to beat this pandemic.’
It comes as Britain’s drug regulator mulls over whether to restrict the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine among young people amid blood clot concerns.
Seven people have died of a rare blood clot on the brain after having the jab in the UK, out of more than 18.1million doses administered so far.
And there have been only 30 cases of rare clotting events registered, the equivalent of one in every 600,000 people or 0.00017 per cent.
The MHRA insists there is no evidence to link the jab to cases of CVST – a rare type of blood clot that can cause strokes – but that it will continue to review the data.