Covid booster vaccines may become available for the UK public to buy for the first time after health officials reiterated their backing for the proposal.
Pharmacists and private clinics will be allowed to offer jabs for sale on the high street, as they do with the flu vaccine. They are unlikely to be available in time for an autumn booster campaign but could become available next year.
A UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) official said there were “no blanket restrictions” on the private sale of vaccines, after scientists backed the move amid concerns over a new wave of the virus that could worsen in autumn and winter.
In addition, sources said health authorities would not prevent manufacturers from initiating a private market for the vaccines.
In the UK, Covid jabs have only been available on the NHS, where they are free at the point of delivery, since the first jab was administered in December 2020.
This month the UK government announced that the Covid autumn booster programme would cover a smaller pool of the population than last year’s autumn programme. The lower age limit has been raised from 50 to 65, with some younger vulnerable groups also eligible.
The government’s two suppliers, Moderna and Pfizer, have said that supplying the NHS remains their priority. However, Moderna said it remained open to “exploring the possibility and viability of providing Covid-19 vaccines to healthcare providers for private sales”.
Philippa Harvey, the director of the Covid vaccine unit at UKHSA, said: “The Covid-19 vaccination programme continues to target those at higher risk of serious illness in line with JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] advice, as those groups are most likely to benefit from booster vaccination at this time.
“The Covid-19 vaccine is not currently available to buy privately in the UK, but there is no blanket restriction on private sales of licensed vaccines. UKHSA will continue to work with manufacturers to ensure there is sufficient vaccine supply available to the NHS programme.”
A UKHSA spokesperson also told the Times: “We have spoken to manufacturers we’re in contract with and made it clear we won’t prevent them initiating a private market for Covid-19 vaccines; rather, we’d welcome such an innovation in the UK.
“As far as we’re concerned, the ball is in the court of the manufacturers to develop the market with private healthcare providers.”
The Covid vaccines already being used would not need a new regulatory approval in order to be sold to the public, a spokesperson for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said.
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Reports suggest private jabs could be offered as soon as this autumn in the US. In March, Moderna told Reuters it expected to price its Covid vaccine at about $130 (£102), while Pfizer last year suggested $110 to $130 a dose.
Prof Adam Finn, of the University of Bristol and a member of the JCVI, said Covid jabs should be available commercially.
Some employers may want to offer the vaccines to their staff, he added.
Speaking in a personal capacity, Finn said: “I think it will be a good idea for vaccines to be made available to those that want them on the private market. I don’t really see any reason why that shouldn’t be happening.”
Prof Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said: “Covid and long Covid vulnerability has been massively skewed to the most socioeconomically deprived – for example, those in jobs least compatible with working from home or taking time off when infected. By outsourcing vaccines to private medicine, we exacerbate this divide.”
