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Valneva Signs Advance Purchase Agreement with Bahrain for Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccine VLA2001

Valneva SE (Nasdaq: VALN; Euronext Paris: VLA), a specialty vaccine company, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with the Kingdom of Bahrain for the supply of one million doses of the Company’s inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001. This is the second purchase agreement Valneva has secured for VLA2001 since reporting positive data for its Phase 3 clinical trial Cov-Compare.

Valneva has initiated a rolling submission process with the Bahraini National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA).

Franck Grimaud, Chief Business Officer of Valneva, commented, “We are grateful to the Bahraini government for their trust and confidence in our vaccine and are eager to work with them to start helping to address the pandemic evolution in the Middle-East. Subject to regulatory review and approval, we plan to start deliveries in the first quarter of 2022.”

A Bahraini government spokesperson stated, “Bahrain is once again at the forefront on adopting new measures to protect the health of citizens and residents against the threat of COVID-19. Subject to approval, Bahraini citizens and residents will have the ability to choose from a variety of vaccines in Bahrain that will have a positive impact on driving up vaccinations rates with 93% of the eligible population now fully vaccinated in the Kingdom.”

Last month, Valneva announced that the European Commission signed an advanced purchase agreement for up to 60 million doses of VLA2001[1]. Valneva reported positive Phase 3 results for VLA2001 in October 2021[2].

About VLA2001

VLA2001 is currently the only whole virus, inactivated, adjuvanted vaccine candidate against COVID-19 in clinical trials in Europe. It is intended for active immunization of at-risk populations to prevent carriage and symptomatic infection with COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic and potentially later for routine vaccination including addressing new variants. VLA2001 may also be suited for boosting, as repeat booster vaccinations have been shown to work well with whole virus inactivated vaccines. VLA2001 is produced on Valneva’s established Vero-cell platform, leveraging the manufacturing technology for Valneva’s licensed Japanese encephalitis vaccine, IXIARO^®. VLA2001 consists of inactivated whole virus particles of SARS-CoV-2 with high S-protein density, in combination with two adjuvants, alum and CpG 1018. This adjuvant combination has consistently induced higher antibody levels in preclinical experiments than alum-only formulations and shown a shift of the immune response towards Th1. CpG 1018 adjuvant, supplied by Dynavax Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: DVAX), is a component of the US FDA- and EMA-approved HEPLISAV-B^®  vaccine. The manufacturing process for VLA2001, which has already been upscaled to final industrial scale, includes chemical inactivation to preserve the native structure of the S-protein. VLA2001 is expected to conform with standard cold chain requirements (2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius).

About Valneva SE

Valneva is a specialty vaccine company focused on the development and commercialization of prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need. The Company takes a highly specialized and targeted approach to vaccine development and then applies its deep understanding of vaccine science to develop prophylactic vaccines addressing these diseases. Valneva has leveraged its expertise and capabilities both to successfully commercialize two vaccines and to rapidly advance a broad range of vaccine candidates into and through the clinic, including candidates against Lyme disease, the chikungunya virus and COVID-19.