This is news that gives a little pride after the abandonment of the vaccine from Sanofi. The Franco-Austrian laboratory Valneva has announced “positive” results in phase 3 trials for its candidate vaccine against Covid-19. This vaccine, which uses the good old inactivated whole vaccine method, was tested against the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Valneva “demonstrated superiority over the AZD1222 vaccine in terms of average neutralizing antibody titers (…) as well as non-inferiority in terms of seroconversion rate (SCR greater than 95% in the two vaccinated groups). weeks after the second injection ”, specifies the laboratory in a press release.
“This is a much more traditional approach to vaccine manufacturing than the vaccines that have been rolled out so far in the UK, Europe and the US,” says Adam Finn, lead instigator of the trial. Thomas Lingelbach, CEO of Valneva, sees it as an opportunity to “offer an alternative vaccine solution to people who have not yet been vaccinated”.
Flight of the title on the Paris Stock Exchange
This is excellent news for the group, which sees its share jump by almost 33% on the Paris Bourse, to settle at 16.01 euros by mid-morning. However, the catastrophe had not passed far for Valneva. Last month, the UK, the main country where the vaccine is developed, canceled a contract for 100 million doses. The price of the Valneva share then collapsed, from 19.92 euros to less than 11.
With these positive results, the laboratory indicates that it has “started the gradual submission of the initial authorization application file to the British health agency (MHRA)”. Valneva, supported by the French government, is also preparing to file the same request with the European Medicines Agency.