Ebola and Lassa fever are among the deadly diseases to be tackled in a pioneering new UK vaccine centre.

Ebola and Lassa fever are among the deadly diseases to be tackled in a pioneering new UK vaccine centre, Business Secretary Greg Clark announced today (Saturday 1 December).

Based in Oxford, the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre will help to tackle disease worldwide as well as further boosting the growth of the UK’s £70 billion life sciences industry.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

More than 200 years ago the UK pioneered the first vaccine and with it, smallpox was eradicated. Now as the world is threatened by killers such as Ebola and Lassa fever we will build on our significant heritage and history to fight against them with our unmatched reputation for medical research and innovation.

The government is investing in pioneering vaccine manufacturing as part of our modern Industrial Strategy to create more highly skilled jobs, place the NHS at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies and deliver the biggest increase in public investment in research and development in UK history.

The availability of safe, effective and economical vaccines is an important pillar of world health. Alongside more familiar diseases, populations globally are threatened by new outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola and Lassa fever. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, an outbreak of Ebola beginning last August has resulted in 357 confirmed cases and 186 deaths, while this year a Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has resulted in 553 confirmed cases and 143 deaths. There are presently no licensed vaccines available for these diseases.

The UK’s world-leading research and innovation expertise is ideally placed to create new, cost-effective ways of developing and manufacturing vaccines for global distribution, as well as ensuring the UK’s own preparedness in the event of a pandemic. The centre is expected to open in 2022, with the first products from the centre expected later that year.

Public Health Minister Steve Brine said:

It is no exaggeration to say that vaccines are a modern marvel and their introduction catapulted our healthcare system years ahead. Just this year we celebrated 50 years on from the introduction of the measles vaccine, which has potentially averted 20 million measles cases and 4,500 deaths.

While all vaccines save millions of lives around the world every year, we cannot get complacent. There are still too many debilitating diseases that take thousands of lives each year – but through investments like this we can strengthen our efforts and stop more diseases in their tracks.

UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive Professor Sir Mark Walport said:

Improving the development, production and application of new vaccines against infectious diseases requires expertise and collaboration across academia and industry.

The Vaccines Manufacturing Centre will play an important role in bringing expertise from industry and academia together to ensure we are prepared to respond to the threats of serious infections, including viruses with the potential to cause major national or global epidemics.

Led by the Jenner Institute, a partnership between the University of Oxford and the Pirbright Institute, the new centre has been awarded funding by UK Research and Innovation of £66 million through the UK government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Medicines Manufacturing challenge.

Jenner Institute Director, Professor Adrian Hill, said:

This is an exceptional opportunity for the UK to lead in the provision of vaccines against a wide range of outbreak pathogens which threaten to cause major epidemics. The lack of commercial incentive to develop these has now led to this exceptional partnership of major academic and industrial players in the vaccine field, to accelerate a range of vaccines towards large-scale manufacture and stockpile provision for vulnerable populations.

In parallel, the Centre will develop innovative manufacturing technologies with UK companies and universities to support the next generation of life-saving preventive and therapeutic vaccines.

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund aims to bring together the UK’s world-leading research with business to meet the major industrial and societal challenges of our time, backed by the biggest increase in public research and development investment in UK history. The investment marks a significant step in delivering on a major commitment in the Life Sciences Sector Deal, a partnership between government and industry ensuring the UK remains at the forefront of developing innovative new treatments and medical technologies to improve patients’ lives.

Additional funding of £10 million will come from commercial and other partners, including Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. and Merck Sharp and Dohme. The centre will be further supported by expertise and training from GE Healthcare.

The core research teams will be drawn from academia and industry and will include significant new contributions from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Imperial College London as well as the University of Oxford. The programme will also benefit from access to technologies and intellectual property created by the partners.

A former chief executive of four previous NHS trusts has been appointed as Chair of the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Dr Fairfield will take up her role today (December 1), taking over from Bill Griffiths, who has occupied the role since December 2012.

The Chair’s responsibilities include:

• providing effective strategic leadership for the operation of the DBS;
• playing a significant role in ensuring that the DBS and its staff maintain the capability to deliver the DBS’s statutory responsibilities and objectives;
• taking into account Government’s safeguarding objectives and priorities;
• chair all meetings of the board and ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively; and
• undertake annual performance appraisals of the Non-Executive Board members and the Chief Executive in line with agreed procedures and timescales.

Dr Fairfield said:

I am delighted to be appointed as the Chair of the Disclosure and Barring Service.

This is an important time for the organisation, as the DBS continues to modernise and drive up its performance to ensure an effective and streamlined service for all. I look forward to working with the dedicated staff there and with our partners as we shape the organisation to ensure that the DBS is as effective, consistently reliable and of the highest quality as possible.

Dr Fairfield is a qualified general practitioner and consultant in public health and worked as chief Executive for the Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust and the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust in addition to two NHS Acute Trusts. Dr Fairfield retired from the NHS after 36 years of service in August 2017.

In addition to her health experience, Dr Gillian has served as a Non-Executive Board Member on the national Youth Justice Board and as Chair of the Youth Justice Board Performance Committee and as member of the Justice Board’s Finance and Risk Committee.

The appointment was facilitated by the passing of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Act 2018 in November.

The Prime Minister has confirmed the UK will not use Galileo for defence or critical national infrastructure after Brexit.

Instead, the UK will explore options to build its own Global Navigation Satellite System that can help guide military drones, run energy networks and provide essential services for civilian smart phones. It will also work with the US to continue accessing its trusted GPS system.

UK Space Agency (UKSA) is currently leading the work, with the full support of the Ministry of Defence, and any British system will provide both open and encrypted signals, giving it the same range of commercial and security applications as GPS and Galileo.

British Armed Forces were due to have access to Galileo’s encrypted system when it is fully operational in 2026. However the National Cyber Security Centre and Ministry of Defence have concluded it would not be in the UK’s security interests to use the system’s secure elements if it had not been fully involved in their development.

The Prime Minister, Theresa May said:

I have been clear from the outset that the UK will remain firmly committed to Europe’s collective security after Brexit.

But given the Commission’s decision to bar the UK from being fully involved in developing all aspects of Galileo it is only right that we find alternatives.

I cannot let our Armed Services depend on a system we cannot be sure of. That would not be in our national interest.

And as a global player with world-class engineers and steadfast allies around the world we are not short of options.

In August the Prime Minister tasked British engineering and aerospace experts to develop options and set aside £92 million for the plans. Since then over fifty UK companies have expressed interest in the project and a series of key contracts are now being tendered.

When commissioning options the PM set out that the British system must be compatible with the US GPS system, meaning that if either were subject to malicious attack the other could provide crucial positioning information.

The Prime Minister has also confirmed that the UK is in close contact with key international allies on plans for the national system.

The UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies would be used to provide the global network of locations needed for the necessary ground-based infrastructure and worldwide coverage.

Recent estimates indicate that over 11 per cent of the UK’s GDP is directly supported by satellite navigation systems and the Blackett review estimated that a failure of service could cost the UK economy £1 billion a day. Resilient and secure position, navigation and timing services are increasingly essential for defence, critical national infrastructure and emergency response.

The UK is a world-leader in developing satellite technology. Britain has a 40% share of the global export market for small satellites and makes major components for one in four of the world’s telecommunications satellites. Glasgow builds more satellites than any other European city. The UK has particular expertise in security, cryptography and satellite manufacture, and has manufactured all of the Galileo satellite payloads to date.

As part of the modern Industrial Strategy the government is committed to growing the UK space sector – helping create 30,000 high-skilled jobs by 2030.