Valneva jumps on positive results for COVID vaccine candidate

Valneva SE shares jumped on Monday after the French biotech company reported positive Phase 3 results for its inactivated, adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

Earlier Monday, the company said the trial–which was conducted on 4,012 people aged 18 years and older across the U.K.–met its co-primary endpoints, showing the vaccine prompts a stronger immune response and lower side effects compared to Astrazeneca’s.

VLA2001 is currently the only whole-virus, inactivated, adjuvanted vaccine candidate against Covid-19 in clinical trials in Europe.

“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,” said Chief Executive Officer Thomas Lingelbach.

Valneva said it started rolling submissions for initial approval with the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and is preparing to start rolling submissions for conditional approval with the European Medicines Agency.

Last month, the U.K. government terminated its Covid-19 vaccine contract with the company due to an alleged breach in obligations.

Valneva said it is also getting ready for trials in children aged five to 12 years as well as for a trial to evaluate VLA2001’s booster performance. MarketWatch