Covid-19: UK government announces £20m rapid response fund

A £20 million Covid-19 rapid research response fund has been announced by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The funding comes from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and will go towards developing a new vaccine for Covid-19; furthering manufacturing processing for mass-producing vaccines; testing existing drugs against Covid-19; developing new therapeutic antibodies; and collecting data on Covid-19 patients.

The first round of projects will receive £10.5 million and are being launched by researchers at a range of universities, including Belfast, Oxford, Liverpool, and Imperial College London, as well Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Imperial College.

Development for a new vaccine has already been initiated by researchers at the University of Oxford. The funding will now support preclinical testing, with the first stage of human testing beginning in adults aged 15-50, and later expanding to other age groups.  

The vaccine is made from a harmless virus, an adenovirus, which has been altered to produce the surface spike protein of the coronavirus after vaccination, to prime the immune system to recognise and attack the coronavirus.

Patients with Covid-19 in the NHS will also be given the HIV combination therapy Lopinavir-Ritonavir, alongside low-dose corticosteroids, to assess if these treatments are effective against the virus. If the clinical trial is successful, then research at the University of Oxford will help manufacture the vaccine at scale.

In particular, the research aims to develop manufacturing processes for producing adenovirus vaccines at a million-dose scale, so that - if clinical trials are successful - a vaccine could be made available to high-risk groups as quickly as possible.

Another project will collect data on Covid-19 NHS patients to better inform the public by asking them urgent questions including - what treatment works best? How is the disease transmitted? And why are some people at higher risk of severe illness?

Chief medical officer professor Chris Whitty said: “The world faces an unprecedented challenge in our efforts to tackle the spread of COVID-19 and it is vital we harness our research capabilities to the fullest extent to limit the outbreak and protect life.  

“Alongside the world-leading research overseen by the NIHR, these new six projects will allow us to boost our existing knowledge and test new and innovative ways to understand and treat the disease.” 

Health secretary Matt Hancock said: “In the midst of a global health emergency the UK is using all its extensive research expertise to quickly develop new vaccines to target this international threat.  

“This investment will speed up globally-recognised vaccine development capabilities and help us find a new defence against this disease.”