The Valneva company has developed a new Covid vaccine, the VLA2001, the only whole virus inactivated vaccine from Europe so far. The vaccine has been studied in clinical trials, and during the Phase III trial, it proved to be highly efficient against the new coronavirus. Valneva published on its official website that the new vaccine outperformed the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and will apply for approval.
What does the Valneva vaccine contain?
The vaccine is made using the whole virus, but it is inactivated. The same procedure was used for other vaccines, such as the one for influenza and polio. The vaccine also contains high S-protein density, alum, and CpG 108. The French company published a list of characteristics of the vaccine:
Inactivated; Adjuvanted with Alum and CpG 1018; Highly-purified; Whole virus candidate ;Vero-cell based; Using the manufacturing platform of Valneva’s commercial Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine
The vaccine will be manufactured in Scotland
According to recent reports, once the Valneva vaccine receives approval, it will be produced in Scotland. The company would like the new vaccine to be approved for the 18-55 age group to begin with and then seek approval for other age groups. The company’s official website also mentions that the vaccine has proven effective, and it was well tolerated by the participants, even more so than other vaccines using similar technology. Health experts believe this vaccine could become a new weapon against the virus.
The chief investigator of the trial, Adam Finn, professor of Pediatrics at the University of Bristol, declared that:
The low levels of reactogenicity and high functional antibody responses alongside broad T-cell responses seen with this adjuvanted inactivated whole virus vaccine are both impressive and extremely encouraging. This is a much more traditional approach to vaccine manufacture than the vaccines so far deployed in the UK, Europe, and North America, and these results suggest this vaccine candidate is on track to play an essential role in overcoming the pandemic.
Until the new vaccine receives approval from the EMA and other health regulators, Europeans can choose to get vaccinated with several Covid-19 vaccines, such as Pfizer, Moderna, J & J, AstraZeneca, and others.