order to assist in the vaccine’s
development. Without a
physical building of their own,
VMIC was awarded a grant of
£38 million to create a rapid
deployment centre (christened
the Virtual VMIC) at the factory
of leading gene and cell therapy
group, Oxford Biomedica.
Equipment – and staff – that
will ultimately end up at VMIC
has been installed at Oxford
Biomedica’s facility, which can
be transferred to VMIC once the
centre is up and running.
“We’re all very conscious
of the fact that there’s a real
rush to not just develop a
vaccine, but also scale up its
manufacture and get it out to
the UK and the world,” says
Duchars. “The Virtual VMIC
will help us achieve that and hit
the ground running once VMIC
itself is ready to go.”
This agreement has been
made possible in part due to
what Duchars calls the ‘Holy
Trinity’ – “the coming together
of government, industry
and academia” – which has
supported VMIC throughout
its development to date.
Having this sort of support
to call on is vital at the best
of times, but even more so
when, like VMIC, you are trying
to increase capacity by 20
times in a building that needs
to be completed in half the
time – meaning all previous
designs and timescales need to
be tweaked – during a global
pandemic. On top of that, staff
have had to be hired, and a
temporary production area has
had to be set up in record time.
“One thing that has come
out of COVID that is really
encouraging is the level of
collaboration also seen in the
Ventilator Challenge UK – read
our feature on the project on
p18,” says Duchars. “The
number of organisations who
have come together to focus on
cracking the problem has been
incredible. Juggling building our
own facility with setting up the
virtual one at Oxford Biomedica
and build an organisation to run
all that from a standing start is
quite a challenging prospect.
That said, people have helped
out and we’re extremely grateful
COVER STORY JULY/AUGUST 2020
VMIC (artist’s impression, inset) will
form part of the Harwell science
innovation campus in Oxfordshire
From lab to jab: the vaccine development process
The sense of urgency that comes with infectious diseases can itself fast-track progress towards arriving at
a vaccine. The need for immediate action unites and galvanises a range of bodies – from researchers and
clinicians through to regulatory bodies and manufacturers – in the quest to get an e ective treatment
into the hands of healthcare professionals as quickly as possible.
Even with these groups working tirelessly and with a determined focus, the end-to-end process can
still take years. There are several stages that come before a treatment is ready to be put into the market.
These include:
Exploratory stage: working through thousands of potential compounds to shortlist vaccine
candidates, and research into immune response.
Pre-clinical stage: analysis to identify relevant antigens to arrive at a vaccine concept and design.
Clinical development: trialling of vaccine on test groups of varying characteristics.
Regulatory review & approval: verifi cation of vaccine safety and compliance with any relevant
health regulations.
Manufacturing & quality control: development of medicines in preparation for mass distribution.
manufacturing capability lags behind. VMIC aims
to change that, consolidating the development
work being undertaken across the country.
“Too often, the best ideas come out of startups
and then go overseas,” laments Duchars. “A
centre like VMIC, where we can train a workforce
that’s able to manufacture vaccines, will enable
the UK to really get ahead of the game – we’ve got
a great track record in developing vaccines, but
not so much in their manufacture.”
To help this, VMIC’s role as a training provider
is vital. The centre’s location in the heart of
the UK’s innovation zone, and links to leading
universities, stands it in good stead for attracting
the brightest and best talent available. However,
says Duchars, the aim of VMIC isn’t to hoover
up all the area’s most skilled workers.
“There is a talent pool within the UK,
especially in the area of Oxfordshire where the
centre is being built,” he explains. “Obviously,
we can draw on that, but we’re conscious of
not draining all the talent from all the other
companies around here. We want to get people in,
train them up and help them celebrate when they
get further work elsewhere. We
want to build the skills in this
country, and not necessarily
amongst those with degrees:
we’ll be taking on people who
have skills in other sectors, and
repurposing their existing skills
for a medical environment.”
The Holy Trinity
While construction of VMIC
is being hurried through, the
immediate need for a COVID-19
vaccine has meant Duchars and
the team have had to adapt in
70mn
doses of vaccines can
be produced when
VMIC is at full capacity
Dr Matthew
Duchars hopes
VMIC will help
vaccine expertise
remain in the UK
14 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk