The UK has added a further 90m doses of coronavirus vaccine to its stockpile. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced that it has ordered 60m doses of a vaccine from the US biotech company Novavax, and 30m doses of another from the Janssen Pharmaceutical Company, which is based in Belgium and owned by Johnson and Johnson. The addition of the two vaccines brings the country’s potential reserve to 340m doses across six experimental vaccines. The government has said both vaccines could be delivered to the UK by mid 2021 if they prove safe and successful in clinical trials. Like the Oxford vaccine, which is in phase three clinical trials, Janssen’s is an adenovirus vaccine, while Novavax’s is a protein adjuvant vaccine – the same approach as taken by GSK/Sanofi Pasteur, with whom the UK government has also placed an order for 60m doses. Members of the public can sign up to take part in clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccines. Early results from the six vaccines have been promising, but experts caution that more work is needed to show they offer effective protection against coronavirus infection. “It is very helpful to have a variety of vaccines, both because we do not know how many will either not work well or have serious adverse effects or will not give lasting protection or will not work well in particular groups like the elderly,” said Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Kate Bingham, Chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, told the Guardian the government was aiming to secure enough doses of each vaccine to protect 30m people in the UK deemed “high priority”, such as frontline healthcare workers and older adults. For some vaccines that will mean securing 60m doses, as two doses are expected to be required per person, while for others a single dose is expected to be sufficient. “The reason we are spreading our bets across the different vaccine formats is because we don’t know which vaccine format is or could be proven to be successful,” she said. Bingham said that while the details for each contract differ, the government essentially pays a deposit upfront, with the remainder paid when the vaccine is approved and can be delivered. “In some [cases] that deposit is larger because we are funding scale up for manufacturing and clinical trials and in some it is effectively an advanced purchase agreement,” she said. However Bingham said the sum spent so far on procuring vaccines remains confidential. Prof Beate Kampmann, the director of the vaccine centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The government has now covered virtually all of the bases by buying into the technological platforms from which the various vaccine candidates are developed. “It’s hedging bets but provides options once we know which of these vaccines show the most promising safety and efficacy data from the ongoing trials – and hopefully it will be more than one. I hope they will also contribute effectively to the global initiative for access to Covid-19 vaccines as we do need to have vaccines for all and not just for the UK.” The government has also agreed in principle to co-fund the development of the Janssen vaccine, supporting the next phase of its clinical trials. It will also support a phase 3 clinical trial of the Novavax vaccine, at least part of which is expected to be manufactured in the UK. “The government’s strategy to build a portfolio of promising vaccine candidates will ensure we have the best chance possible of finding one that works,” said the business secretary, Alok Sharma. “Today’s agreements will not only benefit people in the UK, but will ensure fair and equitable access of a vaccine around the world, potentially protecting hundreds of millions of lives.” The latest developments come as an internal job advert seen by the Mirror reveals the government is seeking a head of pandemic preparedness, five months after the country first went into lockdown. The role will apparently include responsibility for helping officials review approaches to pandemic stockpiling. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This is not a brand new role. We have had an experienced pandemic preparedness team in place for many years who have covered these responsibilities across a number of different posts. This simply reflects an expansion and merging of different teams.”