Valneva Says UK Government Terminates COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Deal

(RTTNews) - French specialty vaccine company Valneva SE (VALN) announced Monday that it has received a termination notice from the UK Government or HMG regarding the Supply Agreement for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001.

The HMG applied its right to terminate, as per the contract, alleging that the company is in breach of its obligations under the supply agreement. However, Valneva said it strenuously denies the allegation.

In September 2020, Valneva announced a collaboration with the UK Government, which has the option to purchase up to 190 million doses through 2025. The Government had ordered 100 million doses for supply in 2021 and 2022.

The company now noted that VLA2001 is currently the only whole virus, inactivated, adjuvanted vaccine candidate in clinical trials against COVID-19 in Europe.

Valneva is continuing its VLA2001 development plan, and testing for the pivotal Phase 3 trial, Cov-Compare, is ongoing at Public Health England.

The company recently announced that its Phase 3 results are expected to be available early in the fourth quarter and that these results will form part of its rolling submission for conditional approval of VLA2001 with the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency or MHRA.

Subject to these data and MHRA approval, Valneva believes that initial approval for VLA2001 could be granted in late 2021.

Valneva said it has invested significant resources and effort to respond to HMG's requests for variant-derived vaccines.