Britain’s biggest independent funder of medical research has called for coronavirus to be “treated like the common cold” as it pledged to pump £16bn into the development of new vaccines.

Wellcome, whose director Sir Jeremy Farrar quit the Government’s Sage committee last autumn amid reports he opposed a relaxation of restrictions, will invest the cash over the next decade to help combat new Covid variants.

Nick Moakes, the charity’s chief investment officer, said restrictions were no longer economically justified and it was time to “live with” coronavirus. 

“I don’t think it can mean going back into regular lockdowns because it is just not economically viable. We don’t do that for the flu, we don’t do that for the common cold,” he said.

“The best case end game is where it is treated like the common cold, like flu. And on an annual basis, those that are vulnerable get a jab against it – and the rest of us have built up a degree of immunity that protects us sufficiently. And we do live with it.”

The trust, set up 84 years ago with the fortune amassed by Henry Wellcome whose pharmaceutical firm would become GlaxoSmithKline, had its best year in more than a quarter of a century.

Its funds swelled by £8.4bn to £36.2bn over the year, boosted by the float of US food delivery firm DoorDash, a company in which Wellcome was an early investor.

Sir Jeremy quit Sage to focus on Wellcome in November with a warning that the Covid crisis “is a long way from over”.

Mr Moakes said that his fellow director agreed that “we are heading towards a situation where it is becoming endemic and that we absolutely need to live with it”.

The remarks came as politicians in Spain and Germany signalled a split among EU members in managing the health crisis.

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said: “We have to evaluate the evolution of Covid from pandemic to an endemic illness.”