The government is streaming new funds of £84 million to help the UK’s top researchers in their quest to develop a coronavirus vaccine, business secretary Alok Sharma has announced.

The funding includes £65.5 million for the vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford and £18.5 million for Imperial College London, as coronavirus vaccine trials accelerate.
It comes as Oxford University agrees a global licensing agreement with AstraZeneca for the commercialisation and manufacturing of their potential vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. If successful, AZ will make up to 30 million doses available by September for people in the UK, as part of an agreement to deliver 100 million doses in total.
According to the government this means the UK will be the first country to get access to the vaccine. “Our scientists are at the forefront of vaccine development. This deal with AstraZeneca means that if the Oxford University vaccine works, people in the UK will get the first access to it, helping to protect thousands of lives,” the business secretary commented.
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 entered Phase I clinical trials last week across five trial sites in Southern England. Data from the Phase I trial could be available soon, while progress into late-stage trials should take place by the middle of this year.

Antibody tests will be available to NHS and care staff, eligible patients and care residents in England to see if they have had coronavirus as part of a new national antibody testing programme announced by health and care secretary Matt Hancock.
The new programme will be prioritised for NHS and care staff, but clinicians will also be able to request them for patients in both hospital and social care settings if they deem it appropriate.
'Highly accurate' lab-based antibody tests will be used to tell whether someone has already had the virus, to provide accurate data about the antibodies he or she has developed in response, which should help clinicians and scientists better understand the prevalence of the virus in different regions across the country.
10 million tests have so far have been secured in a 'landmark deal' with industry, including Roche Diagnostics and Abbott Laboratories, with further agreements being negotiated with suppliers to supply millions of laboratory-based antibody tests.
Abbott said it has capacity to provide significant numbers of tests to the UK and has already shipped 800,000 antibody tests to NHS laboratories, to be used as part of the testing initiative.

A trial of medicines potentially able to prevent serious coronavirus symptoms in people aged over 50 is now recruiting participants from across the country.

The Platform Randomised trial of Interventions against COVID-19 In older peoPLE (PRINCIPLE) is looking at whether existing drugs can be repurposed for older patients in the community who show signs of the disease. Led by a team of Oxford University, it also aims to slow or halt the progression of COVID-19 and prevent hospital admissions.
More than 500 GP practices across the country are recruiting people aged 50 and over with underlying health conditions, or those aged over 65 regardless of underlying health conditions, into the trial.
The first phase is designed to determine whether a seven-day course of hydroxychloroquine, a well-known drug used for acute malaria and certain types of arthritis, can reduce the severity of symptoms in vulnerable groups and help avoid hospital admission. The antibiotic azithromycin will subsequently be added to the trial.
Participants will be closely monitored for the first 28 days of the trial, with a health record notes review taking place for up to three months to understand the longer-term effects of the illness on their health.