EC APPROVES CONTRACT WITH VALNEVA TO SECURE A NEW POTENTIAL COVID-19 VACCINE

The European Commission approved the eighth contract with a pharmaceutical company with a view to purchasing its potential vaccine against COVID-19. The contract with Valneva provides for the possibility for all EU Member States to purchase almost 27 million doses in 2022. It also includes the possibility to adapt the vaccine to new variant strains, and for Member States to make a further order of up to 33 million additional vaccines in 2023.

The contract with Valneva comes in addition to an already secured broad portfolio of vaccines to be produced in Europe, including the contracts already signed with  AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, BioNtech-Pfizer, CureVac, Moderna, and Novavax.

Valneva is a European biotechnology company developing an inactivated virus vaccine, made of the live virus through chemical inactivation. This is a traditional vaccine technology, used for 60-70 years, with established methods and high level of safety. Most of the flu vaccines and many childhood vaccines use this technology. This is currently the only inactivated vaccine candidate in clinical trials against COVID-19 in Europe.

The Commission, with the support of EU Member States, has taken a decision to support this vaccine based on a sound scientific assessment, the technology used, the company's experience in vaccine development and its production capacity to supply all EU Member States.

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