A deal has been agreed to support the manufacturing of up to 60 million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine in the UK.
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will provide “fill and finish” manufacturing capacity at its Barnard Castle facility in the North East of England beginning as early as May.
Boris Johnson said the deal between GSK, Novavax and the UK Government vaccines taskforce will “further boost our vaccine rollout”.
The “fill and finish” is the completion stage of vaccine manufacturing, preparing vials of the final vaccine and packaging them for distribution and use.
60 million doses of Novavax vaccine to be bottled at facility in…Barnard Castle. https://t.co/0iAeQNIWLL pic.twitter.com/qsCvlORZlH
— Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) March 29, 2021
The GSK site at Barnard Castle is a specialised facility in GSK’s global manufacturing network which supports production of GSK pharmaceutical and vaccine products.
The UK Government has secured 60 million doses of the vaccine under an advance purchase agreement with Novavax.
Reactions
Any mention of Barnard Castle and Dominic Cummings infamous trip their to test out his eyesight, was always going to spark some debate on social media.
1.
if Barnard Castle is now going to be used to make vaccines where will Dominic Cummings go to get his eyes tested
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@davemacladd) March 29, 2021
2.
This is like how someone says, “I have a bad feeling about this…” in every Star Wars movie, without explanation. https://t.co/2mpNfExGo9
— small robots (@smolrobots) March 29, 2021
3.
When you’ve spent too much money this season and you’ve gotta reuse the same sets again. https://t.co/M8GqLd5YH6
— Calum Chalmers (@Calchal) March 29, 2021
4.
A reminder that Barnard Castle’s most famous tourist, Dominic Cummings, travelled further with coronavirus in lockdown than Crewe Alexandra have gone for a competitive game in their 144-year history: https://t.co/uf380eVLYw
— Richard Jolly (@RichJolly) March 29, 2021
5.
“Tell the nation you are producing 60 million vaccines at Barnard Castle” pic.twitter.com/PsEbVqc9WQ
— Tears of a Clown (@Modmuffin) March 29, 2021
6.
Oh bloody hell. Looks like I’m going to be busy https://t.co/iCGavnFeAK
— Bernard Castle (@bernardTcastle) March 29, 2021
7.
Did double-check my monitor display but no, not April 1st yet. https://t.co/jlw2TCPiA1
— Catherine Clarke (@CathAMClarke) March 29, 2021
8.
GSK to help manufacture 60m doses of Covid vaccine in Barnard Castle. I bet Dom didn’t see that coming.
— Keith Burge (@carryonkeith) March 29, 2021
9.
Think we’re due for a check-up. https://t.co/vw5i5Q8WKR pic.twitter.com/hvPa0V3EhL
— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) March 29, 2021
10.
So GlaxoSmithKline at Barnard Castle have got the contract to bottle 60m Norovax vaccines and this has absolutely nothing to do with Dominic Cummings visit there, right? 🤔
— Undercover Elephant💙 🐘✊🌱 (@MrsNoone47) March 29, 2021
11.
https://t.co/w2dfvbJvtL pic.twitter.com/988hThhdFa
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) March 29, 2021
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