Inactivated vaccine Valneva: New study surprises with omicron data - approval is imminent

Created: 01/21/2022 05:14

The Franco-Austrian company Valneva is now also intervening in the fight against the pandemic.

The new vaccine should also offer very good protection against the omicron variant.

Vienna – In the fight against the omicron variant, the vaccine arsenal is getting wider and wider.

Now the Franco-Austrian biotech company Valneva is also attacking.

According to a study, Valneva's inactivated corona vaccine, which is about to be approved, also works against the omicron variant, the company announced on Wednesday.

The results of an initial laboratory study showed that serum antibodies formed after three doses neutralize the omicron variant, it said.

Valneva promises high effectiveness against omicron

All tested serum samples would show neutralizing antibodies against the original virus and the delta variant. The efficiency against Omicron is almost 87 percent, the company said.

"We are very pleased with these results, which confirm the potential for broad protection of our (...) vaccine and its ability to target currently circulating variants," said Valneva Chief Medical Officer Juan Carlos Jaramillo.

The new results would complement previous findings from a phase 3 study that showed two doses showed an improved immune response.

The group continues to expect its vaccine to be approved by the EMA health authority in the first quarter.

The first deliveries could then probably begin in April. 

EU Commission reserves 60 million cans

In November, the EU Commission signed a contract with Valneva for the delivery of up to 60 million vaccine doses over the next two years - provided that the vaccine is approved.

Despite the hoped-for effectiveness, Valneva boss Thomas Lingenbach advises getting vaccinated quickly and not waiting for your own vaccine to be approved.

"That would be ethically unacceptable," he told Der Spiegel.

He himself had been boosted with the Biontech vaccine.