Valneva: Corona inactivated vaccine before the end of the EU!

Commission wants to terminate contract - but money would be gone

Created: 05/17/2022Updated: 05/17/2022 2:19 p.m

By: Marcus Giebel

Waiting for Valneva: The inactivated vaccine against Covid-19 may never be approved in the EU.

© IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

The EU has already secured 60 million doses of Valneva's dead coronavirus vaccine.

But now the contract is to be terminated.

The company doesn't give up. 

Munich - Valneva knows how important one's own work and daily research is.

Especially in the Corona crisis.

On its own homepage, the Franco-Austrian company advertises with the slogan: "Develop vaccines for a better life".

The group has also launched a vaccine against Covid-19.

A dead vaccine that many citizens who are not really comfortable with the vector or mRNA vaccines that were approved more than a year ago were hoping for.

Valneva's inactivated corona vaccine: EU Commission wants to terminate advance purchase agreement

But therein lies the problem for Valneva.

Its own vaccine has still not received marketing authorization from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the EU.

And that could have unwelcome consequences.

As the group, based in Saint-Herblain near Nantes in north-western France, explains, the EU Commission intends to “terminate the pre-purchase agreement for Valneva’s inactivated COVID-19 whole-virus vaccine candidate VLA2001”.

It's about ordering 60 million cans.

The agreement thus concluded gives the EU Commission the right to terminate if the EMA does not give the green light by April 30, 2022.

As of May 13, 2022, Valneva says it has 30 days "to obtain marketing authorization or to propose acceptable remedial actions."

Valneva and the dead Corona vaccine: VLA2001 should go to interested countries

The group announces cooperation “with the European Commission and the participating member states”.

Ultimately, VLA2001 should be made available to EU countries that are still interested.

Managing Director Thomas Lingelbach said: "The European Commission's decision is regrettable as we continue to receive messages from Europeans who want a more traditional vaccine solution.

We have started a dialogue with member states interested in our disabled approach.”

Video: Vaccine expert is a booming job

Valneva's inactivated vaccine against Covid-19: Conditional approval granted in the UK

Valneva plans to "complement the existing vaccine offering with an inactivated whole-virus approach."

So far, the vaccine has received conditional marketing approval in the UK, as well as emergency approvals in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The company received a list of further questions from the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP).

Responses were returned on May 2, 2022.

If the CHMP accepts this reaction, Valneva expects an opinion “by June 2022 at the latest”.

Inactivated vaccine against Covid-19 from Valneca: EU would not get any money back if canceled

At the same time, the group points out that even in the event of advance notice from the EU, the payments already received do not have to be returned, “since Valneva has already used or promised the full amount of these advance payments and the advance purchase agreement does not provide for a refund of these payments under these circumstances”.

How much money has already flowed is not revealed.

So far, five vaccines against Covid-19 have been approved in the EU: those from Biontech, Astrazeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

Almost four billion cans have already been ordered during the pandemic.

Valneva is listed as an "inactivated virus vaccine" which is still in development.

The protein vaccine from Sanofi-GSK is subject to ongoing review by the EMA - 300 million doses of which have already been ordered.

Patience is obviously required here as well.