The Long Shot - by Kate Bingham & Tim Hames

About the Book

How Covid-19 vaccines went from the laboratory to people's arms - the inside story of an extraordinary national campaign against all oddsThe Sunday Times bestseller On 3 April 2020, Kate Bingham was told that the likelihood of any Covid-19 vaccine working was 15% at best. But on 8 December 2020, the first NHS patient received a vaccine. Now nearly every adult in Britain has had a jab, lockdowns have ended and we can finally live with Covid. What lies behind this staggering success story? From a cottage miles away from Westminster, Bingham juggled vaccine suppliers, Whitehall, the media circus - and her daughter's exams. Political manoeuvring, miscommunications and administrative meddling nearly jeopardised the project. But perseverance paid off. Catapulted into a national crisis, Bingham's eclectic team secured the first vaccine doses administered in the West and saved thousands of lives in the UK as new variants struck. This is an unmissable insider view into how the Vaccine Taskforce beat the odds and delivered the scientific miracle we all waited for.

Book Synopsis

How Covid-19 vaccines went from the laboratory to people's arms - the inside story of an extraordinary national campaign against all odds

A Sunday Times bestseller and Financial Times Book of the Year.

The unmissable inside story of the race against the virus.

Catapulted into an international crisis, Kate Bingham knew the odds were heavily stacked against a workable Covid-19 vaccine.

From a remote cottage, Bingham juggled vaccine suppliers, Whitehall, the media circus... as deaths mounted and the world shut down. Political manoeuvring, miscommunications and administrative meddling nearly jeopardised the project. But perseverance and expertise paid off.

Bingham's eclectic team secured the first vaccine doses administered in the West, saving thousands of lives in the UK as new variants struck. Now, nearly every adult in Britain has had the jab, lockdowns have ended and we can finally live with Covid.

This is the insider view into how the Vaccine Taskforce beat those long odds and delivered a scientific miracle.

Review Quotes

'An incisive behind-the-scenes look at the challenges Bingham faced in her role... The authors combine a lucid explanation of the scientific breakthroughs needed to create the first Covid vaccine with an insider look at the politics that hampered the taskforce's efforts. The result is a valuable addition to the literature documenting the crisis.'--Publishers Weekly

'The Long Shot is a book about procurement -- not normally a subject for a gripping tale. Yet in this case we are dealing with the most successful procurement exercise of our times. And luckily, Bingham delivers on her punchy promise in the prologue to "tell it like it is". As an outsider rooted in business, she offers strong and specific recommendations for transforming government. Most deliciously, she names names.'--Financial Times

'A blueprint of how industry, academia and government can work together to address a question of global importance, with lessons for other future crises.'--John Tregoning, author of Infectious

'An excellent read... Capturing the exceptional pace and energy of everyone involved in discovering and producing effective therapies against Covid-19. All in all, this is a book I will treasure.'--Sir Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca

'Bingham and Hames's accessible, edge-of-the-seat account of how British innovators vaccinated the UK and much of the rest of the world is also a quiet, compelling, non-partisan argument for dialogue between business and politics.'--Telegraph

'Essential reading for anyone seeking to learn the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic.'--Matthew Partridge, Money Week

'Fast-paced and very compelling... The Vaccine Taskforce will always be remembered as British science at its very best.'--Sir Jonathan Symonds, Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline

'Frank and fascinating.'--Nature

'Kate Bingham's new book, The Long Shot, is a gripping account of the UK Government Vaccine Task Force's response to the pandemic by a remarkable, determined, thoughtful, and practical individual who was at the heart of the critical decisions that had to be made. I spoke with her frequently through 2020 as we battled logistical headwinds and the media storms in development of the Oxford vaccine and was always better for our chats, absorbing the positive energy that she emanates and benefiting from her wisdom. Her clarity of thought and action in a such a dark and turbulent time is a seam running through the book, and I know for certain that her efforts saved many lives. But I have to disagree with the title, because the book shows that it really wasn't such a "long shot" with Kate at the helm.'--Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford

'Written with compelling verve and complete authority, this book describes how Kate Bingham ensured that Covid-19 vaccines would be made available to the UK. But the book does more than that. It also demonstrates how science and the effective application of science are critical to solving the world's problems, and that these solutions will only be delivered with a razor-sharp focus on outcomes rather than on following procedures.'--Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize laureate

About the Author

Dame Kate Bingham served as the Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, on a seven-month unpaid secondment, steering a team of experts to deliver the world's fastest Covid-19 vaccination programme. She is Managing Partner at life sciences venture capital firm SV Health Investors where she co-leads SV's biotech franchise which has a long history of developing transformational new medicines. She was awarded a DBE for her services as Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.