UK signs vaccine deal with GSK and Sanofi

The British government revealed it has signed a fourth deal for a novel coronavirus vaccine, securing up to 60 million doses of an experimental treatment being developed by drug giants GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said human clinical studies of the vaccine will begin in September followed by a phase-3 study in December.

It said that if the treatment proves successful, the United Kingdom could begin vaccinating priority groups such as those at increased risk from the disease starting summer next year.

The government has now signed deals for a total of 250 million doses, having already signed up for 100 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca, and 90 million doses of two other promising vaccines being researched by an alliance between the pharmaceutical companies BioNtech and Pfizer as well as the company Valneva.

In a released statement, Kate Bingham, who chairs the UK government's Vaccines Taskforce, said: "This diversity of vaccine types is important because we do not yet know which, if any, of the different types of vaccine will prove to generate a safe and protective response to COVID-19.

"Whilst this agreement is very good news, we mustn't be complacent or over-optimistic."

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday, Bingham dampened hopes of finding a "silver bullet" that provides lifetime immunity against COVID-19.

It was more likely scientists would develop either a vaccine that provides a year's immunity or one that only mitigates the symptoms of the virus, she said.

"The assumption at the moment is that we'll be shooting to get to a year's immunity," said Bingham, who is coordinating the efforts to develop a vaccine in the UK.

"What I've been anxious about is that people . . . think we'll have a silver bullet. That's probably not going to happen." Even a two-dose vaccine might not last very long, she warned. "You may need to boost (it) every year. At minimum, we want to reduce symptoms, we want to stop people from dying. We have to accept that's maybe where we'll end up."

It comes as the UK government's approach to social care during the COVID-19 crisis received heavy criticism by Parliament's own spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee.

The committee's report said elderly residents of care homes were effectively "thrown to the wolves" during the crisis and accused the government of a host of leadership, accountability and transparency failings.

Countries across Europe are now grappling with new infections and the problem of travelers moving across the continent for the summer holidays.

The head of Germany's public health agency has said he is "very concerned" by rising infections in the country. "We are in the middle of a rapidly developing pandemic," Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, told reporters.

Wieler said Germans had become "negligent" and urged people to wear masks and respect social distancing and hygiene rules. In the past week the country has recorded 3,611 new infections.

More than two thirds of a group of 94 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the Maltese coastguard have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. In tests carried out on arrival, 65 were found to have COVID-19.

When the pandemic was at its height, Malta closed its ports to all traffic, including rescued migrants. The number of new positive cases means that Malta's total has shot up to 99.