Oxford secures industry partner for potential vaccine rollout

The  University of Oxford has partnered with UK pharmaceutical company  AstraZeneca to develop and manufacture the university’s trial COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccine candidate was developed by the university’s Jenner Institute, and began human trials last week.

If the vaccine is proven to be effective and safe, AstraZeneca will manufacture and distribute it in the UK, as well as through its international distribution channels.

Neither Oxford nor the Jenner Institute’s spin-out company Vaccitech, which both own rights to the technology used to develop the vaccine candidate, will receive royalties during the pandemic.

Any royalties Oxford subsequently receives from the vaccine will be reinvested into research, a statement from the university said.

John Bell, Regius Professor of medicine at Oxford, said the university’s partnership with AstraZeneca “will be a major force in the struggle against pandemics for many years to come”.

International distribution of the vaccine would prioritise low to medium income countries, according to Oxford.

The university’s vice chancellor Louise Richardson said that, if the vaccine was approved, the AstraZeneca partnership would ensure “British people and people across the world, especially in low and middle income countries, will be protected from this terrible virus as quickly as possible”.

Concerns rose last month that the global distribution of any vaccine could be impeded by governments’ desire to secure supplies for their own countries.

German media reported in March that US President Donald Trump had offered CureVac, based in Germany, $1 billion to  move its vaccine development operations to the US.

CureVac denied the rumours, and clarified that it was working on a COVID-19 vaccine that would protect “people worldwide”.

Other major pharmaceutical companies working on a vaccine include France’s  Sanofi and Indian company  Zydus Cadila, and  GlaxoSmithKline.

Sanofi has partnered with the US department of Health and Human Services, which has also launched a separate vaccine collaboration with Johnson & Johnson.

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