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Originally Posted by 1andrew1
If they were the same vaccines delivered at the same time then I don't see the difference apart from having more money left to spend on other things.
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I understand that we ordered supplies and committed a lot sooner than the EU who waited for proof that the vaccines were effective before ordering. Thus risking a delay in the vaccines being delivered to us.
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High income countries such as the UK and the US have pre-ordered vast amounts of candidate covid-19 vaccines ahead of their regulatory approval.
Pre-ordering is not just about ensuring access to the first batches of vaccine but about speeding up the process, says Alex Harris, head of global policy at the Wellcome Trust. He explains, “In this instance, the essential benefit of having already made upfront investment—in, for example, manufacturing the vaccine at risk [making it with no certainty that it will work] and building a stockpile significantly—outweighs the cost of that vaccine failing.”
Harris believes that governments are striking deals early because, without the upfront investment from rich countries, they recognise that vaccine manufacturers would not be making any vaccine at risk: they would wait until they had all of the safety and efficacy data and then get regulatory approval. “Then there would be an almighty bunfight for that very limited supply in six to nine months, and the company would say it’s going to take us some time to ramp up our manufacturing,” he says.
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https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3226
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November 12, 2020
The European Union has ordered 300 million doses of BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine following this week’s landmark announcement that it was effective in more than 90% of patients.
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https://pharmaphorum.com/news/eu-orders/
Another article that outlines our Government's reasons for 'going it alone' may well have been due to uncertainty about how Brexit could have effected delivery of the vaccines..
https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/new...avirus-vaccine