UK INVESTS £5M FOR LIBRARY OF VACCINES CPI, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult has received a £5 million investment to support the development of an mRNA vaccine library as part of the UK government's vaccine support package announced by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak. The vaccine library will form the basis of a response facility, which will enable mRNA vaccines to be developed to help protect against new variants of COVID-19. CPI is currently the only company based in the UK capable of batch developing mRNA vaccines ready for use in clinical trials and manufacture. Frank Millar, CPI CEO said: “We’re delighted to be a key part of the UK’s ongoing fight against coronavirus, which has had such a devastating impact over the past year. It’s essential that we prepare for a future living with the threat of COVID-19 and the library of vaccine candidates we are building here in Darlington will help future-proof against further outbreaks caused by new strains of the disease. It will mean that as soon as a new strain of COVID-19 is identified, the relevant vaccine can be selected and rapidly manufactured for use in clinical trials, in a very similar way that we see flu vaccines developed each year.”