COVID vaccine ditched by UK Government shows promising results

COVID vaccine ditched by UK Government shows promising trial results.

The UK Government ditched its contract with French pharmaceutical firm Valneva last month. The company are developing a new coronavirus vaccine. Promising results have been reported.

Last month Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs that Valneva’s Covid-19 vaccine “would not get approval” from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Valneva was accused by the UK government of breaching the agreement. The company have denied this “strenuously”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson even visited the manufacturing site earlier this year. The site is based in Livingston. Around 100 million doses of the vaccine had been on order for the UK.

The company are now reporting positive results from the trial. New phase three results have just been released.

Adam Finn is the chief trial investigator. He is also a professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol. He explained: “The low levels of reactogenicity and high functional antibody responses alongside broad T-cell responses seen with this adjuvanted inactivated whole virus vaccine are both impressive and extremely encouraging.

“This is a much more traditional approach to vaccine manufacture than the vaccines so far deployed in the UK, Europe and North America and these results suggest this vaccine candidate is on track to play an important role in overcoming the pandemic.”

Valneva’s chief executive officer, Thomas Lingelbach commented: “These results confirm the advantages often associated with inactivated whole virus vaccines.

“We are committed to bringing our differentiated vaccine candidate to licensure as quickly as possible and continue to believe that we will be able to make an important contribution to the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.”

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