I just read an article in the Times (paywall so won't link) about the UK vaccine procurement team led by Kate Bingham. They were clearly far more agile and professional than the EU team, which was led by the equivalent of a parish councillor from Cyprus whose career to date consisted of fuck all. Bingham has had a long and extremely successful career in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors and she gathered a like minded team around her.
en.m.wikipedia.org
She said her brief from Boris Johnson was simply to save lives and they have done an amazing job of maximising our chances of obtaining working vaccines and securing supplies. She's done it without accepting any renumeration too.