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As Europe battles vaccine shortages, the UK has started manufacturing up to 60 million doses of a new COVID vaccine – in its own territory.
French biotech Valneva will begin producing its experimental COVID at a plant in Livingston, Scotland, ahead of testing and regulatory approval, the government said Thursday.
“By starting manufacturing we will have a good start to deploy them as quickly as possible to protect the British public if they receive regulatory approval,” said Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told TWTR on Twitter,
Thursday that the Valneva vaccine “will be another vital tool in our fight against the virus if approved.”
The news comes as the European Union faces increasing pressure on the speed of its vaccination program, which has been compounded by pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca AZN,
and Pfizer PFE,
both announcing delays in the delivery of their vaccines due to production problems in European factories.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country is facing a vaccine shortage through April, as he called for a vaccination summit involving drug companies, manufacturers and politicians to look for ways to speed up deployment in the block.
“We will still have at least 10 difficult weeks with a shortage,” he said in a Tweeter Thursday.
His comments come as the German Vaccine Committee has recommended that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine be used only on people between the ages of 18 and 64, according to wire services reports.
Meanwhile, Madrid health officials said on Wednesday they had suspended COVID vaccinations this week and next because they ran out of vaccines.
“Unfortunately, as we suspected that the pace of deliveries had been interrupted,” Madrid regional vice-president Ignacio Aguado told reporters, adding that the region had vaccinated 180,000 people since the start of the campaign.
In contrast, more than 7.1 million people across the UK have now received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford, or the vaccine made by German biotech BioNTech 22UA ,
and its American partner Pfizer 0Q1N,
The government, which has set itself the goal of vaccinating 15 million of the most vulnerable citizens by mid-February, has obtained rapid access to 367 million doses of seven vaccines, including one manufactured by American biotechnology company Moderna MRNA,
The EU, which has signed an agreement with AstraZeneca AZN,
in August for 300 million doses, with an option for 100 million more, is now asking the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company to divert supplies of its COVID-19 vaccine from British factories to deal with the shortage.
Lily: EU demands access to UK-made AstraZeneca vaccines as dispute over shortages escalates
The two sides met on Wednesday evening, during which AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot pledged to work with the EU to resolve the issue.
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“We are committed to even closer coordination to jointly chart the course for the delivery of our vaccine over the coming months as we continue our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans profitlessly during the pandemic. ”
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“We had a constructive and open conversation about the complexities of increasing production of our vaccine, and the challenges we encountered,” said a spokesperson for AstraZeneca. “We are committed to even closer coordination to jointly chart a course for the delivery of our vaccine over the coming months, as we continue our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans without profit during the pandemic. “.
European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a tweet on Wednesday evening that the 27-member bloc regretted the “persistent lack of clarity” on the delivery schedule.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford shot is expected to receive emergency clearance for use in the EU on Friday.
AstraZeneca shares fell 1.74% in London on Thursday morning.
The meeting between the EU and AstraZeneca took place just hours after the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi SAN,
stated that it will team up with BioNTech 0A3M,
and Pfizer to manufacture up to 125 million doses of their COVID injection.
Valneva is developing an inactivated whole virus vaccine, a more traditional approach than that of BioNTech BNTX,
and Pfizer, which uses the so-called messenger RNA, or mRNA, approach, which sends a message to cells telling them to create proteins capable of generating an immune response.
Lily: New COVID-19 vaccine candidate Valneva begins clinical trials
The French company’s vaccine candidate is currently in phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials, involving 150 volunteers at sites in Bristol, Birmingham, Southampton and Newcastle, to assess the safety of the experimental vaccine and whether it produced an immune response in healthy adults.
If successful, Valneva will conduct a larger study in April 2021, with more than 4,000 volunteers testing two doses of the vaccine in two groups: those aged 18 to 65 and those over 65. The vaccine candidate could then become available in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“We believe our vaccine, assuming successful development, can make a major contribution to the UK and beyond,” Valneva Managing Director Thomas Lingelbach said in a statement on Thursday.
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