On Sept. 14, 2020, Valneva announced a vaccine partnership with the UK government for its inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, VLA2001.

Valneva will provide the UK government with 60 million doses in the second half of 2021. UK Government then has options over 40 million doses in 2022 and a further 30 million to 90 million doses, in aggregate, across 2023 to 2025. . Revenue from these options could amount to almost €900 million. Valneva’s inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is expected to have a two dose regimen. UK government is also investing up-front in the scale up and development of the vaccine, with the investment being recouped against the vaccine supply under the partnership. The agreement follows the initial intent to participate in the UK Government’s COVID-19 vaccine response announced in July.

Valneva’s vaccine candidate, VLA2001, is based on a proven approach and will leverage the company’s existing manufacturing platform being used for its US FDA and EMA approved Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine. VLA2001 is expected to enter clinical studies at the end of 2020 and, if the clinical development is successful, a first regulatory approval may be granted in the second half of 2021.

Valneva had previously announced an agreement in principle with the UK government for the supply of vaccine doses and a binding preliminary agreement to support expansion of its UK-based manufacturing facilities.

VLA2001 is a Vero-cell based, highly purified inactivated vaccine candidate against the SARS-COV-2 virus, leveraging the manufacturing technology for Valneva’s Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine. The Company has designed a process that largely uses this platform in regard to upstream and downstream process steps as plug-and-play with moderate adjustments. The process includes inactivation with BPL to preserve the native structure of the S protein. The combination with CpG 1018 is expected to induce a strong immune response and has the potential to generate high titers of neutralizing antibodies.