The Novavax jab is the first to show it is effective against the new variant of the virus discovered in the UK.

The UK has secured 60 million doses of the jab, which will be made in Stockton-on-Tees.

The doses are expected to be delivered in the second half of this year, if approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the government said.

The jab was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing Covid-19 in participants in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK, which enrolled more than 15,000 people between 18-84, of whom 27% were older than 65, Novavax said.

Novavax, Inc. is an American vaccine development company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with additional facilities in Rockville, Maryland and Uppsala, Sweden

Through the Vaccines Taskforce, the UK has secured early access to 367 million doses of 7 of the most promising vaccines so far. To date, the UK government has invested over £230 million into manufacturing a successful vaccine.

The UK was the first country in the world to procure, authorise and then deploy both the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.

The Vaccine Taskforce was set up in May 2020 by the Second Johnson ministry, in collaboration with Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance and Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, in order to facilitate the path towards the introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and its global distribution. The taskforce acts to coordinate the research efforts of government with industry, academics and funding agencies in order to be able to make timely decisions which expedite vaccine development and deployment.

On 16 May 2020, Kate Bingham was named to chair the body.

Kate Bingham (born October 1965) is the daughter of Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill KG, PC, FBA (the eminent British judge who was successively Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord) and Elizabeth Loxley. She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, London, at Christ Church, Oxford where she gained a first class MA in Biochemistry, and at Harvard Business School for an MBA

Bingham worked in business development for Vertex Pharmaceuticals and consultants Monitor Company before joining investment company Schroder Ventures in 1991 (now SV Health Investments). She became a management partner specializing in biotechnology, and has served on the boards of companies in the UK, US, Ireland, Sweden and Germany.

In May 2020, she was made chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, set up to manage the path towards the introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and its global distribution. In this temporary unpaid role, which finished at the end of the year, she reported to the Boris Johnson. In October, she was one of the participants in a trial of a vaccine by Novavax.

Bingham married Jesse Norman in 1992; the couple have two sons and a daughter. Norman was elected as the Conservative MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire in 2010. As of 2020, he serves as Financial Secretary to the Treasury in the administration of Boris Johnson.

I don't know zilch about this vaccine. Will have to read up, but it's beyond me why we need so many different types.

The Valneva vaccine won't be far behind, either.
Although a French company, they have partnered with the UK government in a similar manner to Oxford & AZ and we've ordered 60 million doses with an option for another 130 million more from this company too which, for us in the UK, will be made in Scotland.
This vaccine too is expected in the second half of this year.

https://valneva.com/research-develop...id-19-vla2001/