Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 20 January 2021.
I think it's a fair question, and I thank the Member for the way he's put the question as well, because it's important we don't stoke people's fears, in terms of the roll-out. I think Pfizer-BioNTech themselves have made a public statement that they're reassessing their own manufacturing process and there'll be a brief pause before they then have a more robust manufacturing process for the increased volume of their vaccine they are producing in Belgium. So, we may see a slight reduction for a period of time in the Pfizer vaccines coming into the UK, but the manufacturers have been clear that they think they'll then have an increased and more robust supply coming into us.
And with the AstraZeneca supply, it's easier in terms of supply chain, because some of it has been manufactured in Germany, but we expect the delivery unit in Wrexham to be delivering more and more of the UK's supply. But we do then understand the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency quite rightly undertake batch testing to make sure that batches are properly tested and assured before they're released into the system. So, we've seen a pause in that, a delay in one of the batches. We can expect that; we can also expect that to be smoothed out over time, as AstraZeneca have committed to provide significantly increased amounts of that vaccine to all nations in the UK. And it is important. With relatively complex supply and delivery chains, there may be some bumps. If those are material, then I will report those openly, and what it means in terms of vaccine supply. I'll be clear about whether that pauses or moves backwards any of the milestones we have. But what I can say is that, as soon as we get vaccine that our health service can use and deliver, it'll be supplied to go to people as quickly as possible. I'd ask the public to bear with our NHS. No-one will be left behind; people won't be forgotten. Working all together, I'm confident we can do something that Wales can be really proud of with our NHS-led vaccination programme.