The past month has seen a series of high-profile withdrawals by major pharmaceutical companies - Merck abandoned plans for a £1bn facility at London's Kings Cross and AstraZeneca halted a £200m investment at its Cambridge research site -  with industry representatives criticising Britain's drug pricing compared to other developed countries.

Speaking yesterday (24 September) at the opening of US biotech firm Moderna's innovation and technology centre in Harwell, Oxfordshire, Lord Vallance told the BBC that ‘price increases are going to be a necessary part' of solving that problem.

He said: ‘Where the additional money would come from to pay higher prices is a matter for the department of health and the Treasury to figure out.'

Health secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC there was ‘a live conversation between government departments and the pharma industry' on drug pricing.

Moderna's new facility will enable groundbreaking work on the use of mRNA vaccine technology to tackle cancer and seasonal infections subject to the usual regulatory processes. It could also be utilised to produce up to 250 million vaccine doses a year in the event of a pandemic.