Health Secretary Matt Hancock today said he was ‘throwing everything at’ the attempt to develop the first vaccine in the world.
The Government will give the scientists an extra £20million to help with their project, Mr. Hancock said.
The vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be trialed in conjunction with the University Hospital Southampton.
It is the first British-made vaccine to go into clinical trials and carries with it huge hopes that it will provide a key to getting out of lockdown and banishing COVID-19 from society.
The virus has now infected more than 125,000 people and killed 17,339 in the UK and the UK is on course to end up one of the worst-hit nations in the world.