Biotechnology Firm to Begin Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine in the U.K.

Jan, 2021 - By SMI

On 16^th December 2020, biotechnology company, Valneva SE, announced plans to commence clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine in Britain.

Valneva, a company engaged in the development and commercialization of vaccines for infectious diseases, will initiate trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the U.K. from 16^th December 2020. The government has ordered at least 60 million doses of the vaccine. A spokesperson from the company has stated that the first two phases of the clinical trials of Valneva’s COVID-19 vaccine will focus on testing the vaccine’s efficacy and ability to fuel an immune response following 3 different dosages. The study will be supported by the National Institute of Health and will be conducted at various sites across the country.

The vaccine developer’s goal is to determine the ideal dose of the drug in the second quarter of 2021, and submit it for approval by autumn next year. This suggests a gap of several months from its original vision to achieve a mid-2021 goal. In addition to an order of 60 million doses, the U.K. can buy 130 million more doses for the period 2022-2035 for 1.4 billion euros which amounts to approximately US$ 1.7 billion. The vaccine developed by Valneva contains the deactivated form of a virus which triggers an immune response in the body but does not prompt any health issues. A similar technique is used in the company’s existing vaccination indicated for Japanese encephalitis.

Valneva, a biotechnology company based in Nantes, Western France, currently has two inoculations against cholera and Japanese encephalitis. Moreover, the company has a third vaccine in phase 2 of clinical trials indicated against Lyme disease; and another one against the chikungunya virus in phase 3 trials. The company is also in the Paris stock market list and is working towards securing a place in the New York stock exchange listing for 2021.