UK NEWS

Chief Scientific Officer holds 600k worth of shares in vaccine maker GSK

24 September, 2020
David Clews

Sir Patrick Vallance, The Chief Scientific Adviser, has a £600,000 shareholding in a pharmaceuticals giant which is racing to develop a Covid vaccine for the Government according to a special report by The Telegraph.

Vallance holds the deferred bonus of 43,111 shares in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from his time as president of the multinational company.

Sir Patrick has already sold more than £5 million in shares he received during his tenure from 2012 to 2018, when he was appointed by the Government.

Accounts seen by the Telegraph show that Sir Patrick held 404,201 GSK shares when he resigned, worth £6.1 million at today’s price.

Sir Patrick Vallance speaking to the nation on Monday night. He and Chris Whitty outlined why the Government was announcing a raft of new lockdown measures

Sir Patrick, who also chairs the Government’s expert panel on vaccines, predicted at a news conference this week that the first effective doses of a jab might become available on a limited basis by the end of this year.

Sir Patrick’s former employer has deals with the British and US governments to supply them with Covid-19 vaccines, subject to terms in a final contract.

A senior Conservative MP and ex-Cabinet minister told The Telegraph that Sir Patrick should have declared his stake in GSK:

“The policy of this Government is to try to suppress Covid at every opportunity until we get a vaccine. That makes it more likely that a vaccine will be prioritised by the Government and he happens to be holding shares in one of the leading companies that are developing it. It is a potential conflict of interest.

If he is making decisions on vaccines and advising the Government on them, then he either needs to divest himself of the shares or make a declaration every time he touches on the subject. In the Commons, every time MPs raise an issue in which there is a registered interest, they have to declare it. Every time he is talking about vaccines or on TV, he should put it on the table.”

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