Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, and IDT Biologika have entered a collaboration for the production of Valneva’s inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001. This follows last week’s announcement that Valneva signed an Advance Purchase Agreement with the European Commission to supply up to 60 million doses of VLA2001, over two years.
 
IDT Biologika will produce VLA2001’s drug substance at its Biosafety Level 3 facilities in Dessau-Roßlau, Germany, in addition to Valneva’s manufacturing site in Livingston, Scotland.
 
Thomas Lingelbach, Chief Executive Officer of Valneva, said, “IDT is a well-established partner within Valneva’s manufacturing network. As such we are extremely pleased to extend this partnership to supply VLA2001. This collaboration will help ensure our inactivated vaccine is available for rapid deployment as we continue to believe that our differentiated vaccine candidate can make an important contribution to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
 
Dr. Jürgen Betzing, Chief Executive Officer of IDT Biologika, said, “This is great news for our company. This assignment shows the importance of the role played by IDT in the fight against COVID-19. It is a great achievement and demonstrates the trust that Valneva has placed in us and our employees. The expansion of our production capacity combined with our expertise were key factors in the choice of IDT.”
 
Valneva has continued to review its manufacturing strategy following discussions with the UK Government (HMG) in the summer and again after the termination of the UK contract in September 2021. Valneva plans to operate a combination of external and internal production of VLA2001 and will further review its manufacturing plans based on demand. The Company’s sites in Livingston, Scotland and Solna, Sweden will continue to form part of the Company’s core manufacturing strategy.
 
Valneva reported positive Phase 3 results for VLA2001 in October 2021. Delivery of the vaccine in Europe is currently expected to begin in April 2022, subject to approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is expected to start a rolling review of VLA2001 shortly.