Richard Sharp: BBC chair was shareholder in firm awarded £600k while he was a No 10 adviser

BBC chair Richard Sharp was a Downing Street economic adviser when a cancer detection company in which he owns a 6.6% share was granted almost £600k for Covid research. Photograph: House of Commons/PA

Richard Sharp owns a multimillion pound stake in a healthcare company which was granted nearly £600,000 for Covid research while Sharp worked in No 10, it has emerged.

Sharp, the chair of the BBC, is the second-largest shareholder in Oncimmune, a cancer detection company which received funds in 2020 to help research Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. He was previously a director at the company.