Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, received a termination notice from the UK Government (HMG) in relation to the Supply Agreement for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001. The contract provides HMG with the right to terminate. HMG has alleged that the Company is in breach of its obligations under the Supply Agreement, but the Company strenuously denies this.
 
Valneva is continuing its VLA2001 development plan. Its pivotal Phase 3 trial, Cov-Compare, is ongoing at Public Health England (PHE), with results expected to be available early in the fourth quarter. These results will form part of its rolling submission for conditional approval of VLA2001 with the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Subject to these data and MHRA approval, Valneva believes that initial approval for VLA2001 could be granted in late 2021.
 
Valneva has worked on the collaboration with HMG including investing significant resources and effort to respond to HMG’s requests for variant-derived vaccines. Valneva continues to be committed to the development of VLA2001 and will increase its efforts with other potential customers to ensure that its inactivated vaccine can be used in the fight against the pandemic.
 
About VLA2001
VLA2001 is currently the only whole virus, inactivated, adjuvanted vaccine candidate in clinical trials against COVID-19 in Europe. It is intended for active immunization of at-risk populations to prevent carriage and symptomatic infection with COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic and potentially later for routine vaccination, including addressing new variants.
 
VLA2001 is produced on Valneva’s established Vero-cell platform, leveraging the manufacturing technology for Valneva’s licensed Japanese encephalitis vaccine, IXIARO. VLA2001 consists of inactivated whole virus particles of SARS-CoV-2 with high S-protein density, in combination with two adjuvants, alum and CpG 1018. CpG 1018 adjuvant, supplied by Dynavax Technologies Corp.
 
VLA2001’s manufacturing process, which has already been upscaled to final industrial scale, includes chemical inactivation to preserve the native structure of the S-protein. VLA2001 is expected to conform with standard cold chain requirements (2 to 8 degrees Celsius).