The UK regulator is the first in the world to approve it. Valneva’s Covid-19 vaccine was approved by the UK’s medicines and health products regulatory agency, the MHRA, on Thursday, April 14. It is the sixth coronavirus vaccine to be approved in the UK, alongside those from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, the single-dose Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) and Novavax.
Bahrain had already authorized the emergency use of VLA2001 and purchased one million doses. However, its use remains uncertain. This authorization comes seven months after a huge disappointment for the group: the termination by the UK government of a 100 million dose contract. The government invoked a violation by Valneva of its obligations, which the laboratory disputed.
Positive benefit/risk ratio
The SARS-Cov-2 vaccination campaign has now also clearly marked time in the UK, hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 171,000 deaths. More than 92% of the population aged 12 years and older has already received a first dose of vaccine, 86.2% a second dose and 67.8% a booster dose. In the UK it can be used in people aged 18 to 50 with the first and second doses taken at least 28 days apart.
“The Independent Commission for Medicinal Products for Human Use and its Expert Task Force on Covid-19 have carefully reviewed the available evidence and † the benefit/risk ratio is positive”, said Professor Munir Pirmohamed, chairman of this committee, quoted in this press release. He pointed out that for this vaccine:
Two doses are required before a potent antibody response is activated. This means that people should be told that protection does not start until after two doses.
Located in Saint-Herblain
A company with about 800 employees, historically located in Saint-Herblain, near Nantes (western France), where it has its laboratories, Valneva has three locations outside France. These include a factory in Livingstone, near Edinburgh, in Scotland, for the production of active ingredients for vaccines, including serum against Covid-19.
The Covid-19 vaccine uses the well-known inactivated virus technology, a process that creates an immune response in patients by injecting them with an entire virus, which has been robbed of its ability to cause harm. It is the same technology used in the Japanese encephalitis vaccine. It can be stored at the temperature of conventional refrigerators, which makes it easier to use.
This clearance comes as the number of coronavirus deaths recorded each week in England and Wales continues to rise, but remains well below levels reached during previous waves of contamination.
The lab has also signed an agreement with the European Commission for the delivery of up to 60 million doses over two years in 2022 and 2023.
