The pharmaceutical company Wockhardt has struck an agreement with the government to supply the UK with millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines.

Under the agreement Wockhardt, which is headquartered in India, will use its subsidiary CP Pharmaceuticals in Wrexham over the next 18 months to put the vaccines into syringes at its fill-and-finish production site.

That process will include vaccines currently being developed AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

“Discovering a successful vaccine is only part of the solution, we also need to be able to manufacture it. Fill finish is a critical step in the process to get the vaccine in a form to be given to patients,” said Kate Bingham, chair of UK Vaccines Task Force.

“The agreement with Wockhardt will boost our capability to ensure that from the moment a successful vaccine is identified we will be able to produce the quantities of vaccine required, as quickly as possible, for the people who need it.” 

Wockhardt UK managing director Ravi Limaye said the company had “a sophisticated sterile manufacturing facility and a highly skilled workforce” and expected to “start delivering the first doses of the vaccine later this year.”