Valneva shares fell more than 20% on Monday after the Franco-Austrian biotech on Friday called for more orders from European countries for its Covid-19 vaccine in order to be able to maintain its contract with the European Union. .
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The group's managing director warned of a possible halt to the development program for its vaccine "
without a sufficient volume of orders
", which caused the title to plummet by 22.74% to 8.09 euros at 10:05 a.m.
Valneva had signed an agreement last year with the European Commission for the supply of up to 60 million doses of its vaccine.
However, on that date, it received order volumes that were too low compared to what was initially expected, which jeopardizes the sustainability of the program, she believes.
The soap opera of a French vaccine against Covid
"
It would not be economically viable,
" Valneva chief executive Franck Grimaud told AFP.
This is yet another episode in the soap opera of a French vaccine against Covid, while the world production of serums has reached such levels that some laboratories have already stopped manufacturing, due to lack of demand.
Since the start of the year, the Valneva stock has already lost more than 65%.
The prospect of an exit from the Covid-19 crisis weighed heavily on its share price.
For 2022, Valneva was initially to deliver to the European Union some 24 million doses of “
VLA2001
”.
However, the latter has still not been authorized by the European Medicines Agency.
In May, the European Commission therefore announced that it was considering canceling its order, which caused the share price to fall by nearly 20%.
Under the terms of the contract, Valneva therefore had 30 days from May 13, 2022 to obtain marketing authorization or propose a plan to remedy the situation in an acceptable manner.
Valneva's vaccine has already been authorized in the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain, the only country where it is currently marketed.