Quote Originally Posted by great_fire View Post
Well that's yet another mistake by the government, they could have approached GSK instead who do have experience in producing vaccines.
GSK already had a vaccine tie up with the French company, Sanofi.

The American company, Merck, were in talks with Oxford University over a collaboration, but the UK government feared - probably correctly - that any deal with that company would result in the US getting priority over the UK. Hence the UK government stepping in and providing funding for a tie up with AZ.