Valneva has signed an advance purchase agreement with the European Commission (EC) to supply up to 60 million doses of VLA2001, the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate, for a period of two years. This agreement follows the announcement on 10 November that the agreement was approved by the European Commission.

Under the terms of the agreement, after a final review of the quantities required by each of the EU member states, Valneva plans to supply 24.3 million doses during the second and third quarters of 2022, subject to regulatory approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The European Commission has the option of increasing this initial company order to a total of 60 million doses, with additional doses to be delivered in 2023.

“We are very pleased that the European Commission and Member States have entered into this purchase agreement with us, and we look forward to contributing to the fight against the pandemic that is currently underway. We continue to receive messages from people around the world requesting an inactivated vaccine. The results of our third phase confirmed the benefits often associated with inactivated vaccines, We continue to believe that our differentiated candidate vaccine can make an important contribution to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” comments Thomas Lingelbach, Chairman of the Valneva Executive Board.

Valneva published positive Phase 3 results for VLA2001 in October 2021. VLA2001 demonstrated superiority to AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine, in terms of mean antibody titer, as well as non-inferiority in terms of seroconversion rate and a better safety profile.