Global health is Britain's best defence – more investment is key

The vaccine called Chimp Adenovirus type 3 (ChAd3) at the Oxford Vaccine Group Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine (CCVTM), in Oxford. (Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

The UK may be a small country, but it continues to play an outsized role on the world stage. In an increasingly uncertain and geopolitically turbulent landscape, it is more important than ever that we leverage our significant resources, funding, thought leadership and convening power to tackle the major challenges in global health.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought this into sharp relief. The UK’s extraordinary development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine saved an estimated 6.3 million lives in the first year of the global vaccine rollout – more than any other. Key to this was our belief that we didn’t just need a vaccine that worked; we needed it to be affordable, to be capable of being stored at normal fridge temperature, to be easily transportable and, crucially, to be capable of being mass produced by manufacturers worldwide. In other words, efficacy mattered little unless it was also available, accessible, affordable and deliverable.

Approximately 39 million people are expected to die directly from AMR by 2050... more than the number killed by cancer

And from the start, the UK understood that ensuring the vaccine was distributed globally was both the right thing and the smart thing to do. We led by example as COVAX’s largest single donor, and over three billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been made available for use in over 180 countries.

The strength of, and innovations made by, the UK’s life sciences sector are more effective when they are delivered globally. The robustness of the NHS depends, in part, upon the strength of healthcare systems around the world. Homegrown innovations, delivered globally, save lives and help those most vulnerable to the deadliest diseases.

Take the latest WHO-approved malaria vaccine, R21, developed by Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and The Serum Institute of India, and the first malaria vaccine to meet the WHO’s goal of 75 per cent efficacy. Not only was R21 developed here in Britain but, through our funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, alongside other donor countries, the UK will help ensure that around 6.6 million children are vaccinated across 14 African countries in 2024 and 2025.

Today, scientists in Britain continue to work on vaccines against pathogens with outbreak and pandemic potential, protecting people both in developing countries and here in the UK. We’ve also seen in our response to crises such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2013 that the UK can play a decisive role in containing outbreaks at source, reducing the potential human and future financial cost to the UK.

Britain’s international development spending is therefore critical to tackling global health challenges that not only devastate the people most vulnerable to deadly diseases, but safeguards the UK’s health too. As the impacts of climate change are increasingly felt, diseases once confined to tropical areas are increasingly likely to spread. Eradicating them at source, therefore, is not just the right thing to do, but critical to our own safety and security.

When the next virus with pandemic potential emerges, countries must be better equipped to detect, treat and contain it

Another such emerging threat is rising levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which endangers the efficacy of our antibiotics and thus our ability to treat infections. Approximately 39 million people are expected to die directly from AMR by 2050 or, to put this into perspective, more than the number killed by cancer.

Higher funding for healthcare in low and middle income countries will be vital to curb this growing global crisis. Supporting progress towards the universal provision of clean water, for example, will reduce the rates of infection, and aiding the development of well-regulated healthcare systems will curb the misuse of antibiotics. The strength of the UK’s life sciences sector and the significant influence we have on the world stage gives us a unique opportunity to lead global efforts to tackle AMR, which, if unchallenged, will permeate our global food chain and significantly shorten life expectancy.

Governments can be the architects of global health if they commit to consistent funding. When it comes to health threats, prevention is easier – and far cheaper – than cure, but successful prevention requires reliable funding and long-term planning. The UK government has a vital role to play as both convener and coordinator: to commit funding to the development and manufacture of tools to fight disease, to work with partners to roll out programmes and vaccines both at home and abroad, and to increase uptake through education.

Now is the time to support other governments around the world to strengthen their healthcare systems and improve provision of clean water and sanitation. When the next virus with pandemic potential emerges, countries must be better equipped to detect, treat and contain it.

The UK’s development budget for health, however, has been cut significantly in recent years, from £1.4bn in 2019 to £764m in 2023. In the face of increasingly complex and dangerous global health challenges, I urge the new government to commit to sustained and increased investment in global health, as part of its foreign policy and domestic security strategy.

The UK can, and must, lead by example.

Sarah Gilbert is a professor of vaccinology in the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University

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