Kate Bingham and Tim Hames

Venture capitalist and chair of the UK’s Covid vaccine taskforce Dame Kate Bingham and fellow venture capitalist, journalist and politics lecturer Dr Tim Hames look back at how the country’s successful vaccination programme was brought forward against all the odds.

At the beginning of April 2020 Bingham was told that the likelihood of a Covid-19 vaccine working was 15% at best. However, the first NHS patient received a vaccination on December 8 of the same year and nearly every UK resident has now had the jab. Bingham describes how she juggled suppliers, Whitehall, the media circus and the political manoeuvring and administrative meddling that nearly jeopardised the project. Bingham and Hames also look at how the effective application of science can solve the world’s problems if it is delivered with a sharp focus on outcomes.

Bingham is a managing partner at venture capital firm, SV Health Investors. She chaired the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, which steered the procurement of vaccines and the strategy for their use during the pandemic. Hames is director general of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. He is a former columnist and chief leader writer at The Times and was a politics lecturer at the University of Oxford.