Why has the UK cancelled its order for French vaccine 'more effective' than AstraZeneca jab?
A French-manufactured Covid vaccine could be more effective than the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab but the UK has no orders in place for it.
French pharmaceutical firm Valneva – whose UK contract for vaccines was cancelled last month – has reported positive results from its most recent phase of testing.
The company claims the jab is better at producing the antibodies which fight off Covid, compared to the AstraZeneca jab.
Why has the UK cancelled its contract for the jab?
Last month, the government scrapped a deal for Valneva’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs it was clear the vaccine would not get approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Valneva said that the UK government had served a notice to the firm, over allegations of a breach of the agreement. The vaccine manufacturer "strenuously" denied any breach.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Valneva’s Scottish manufacturing site in Livingston in January, and around 100 million doses were ordered by the government.
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Is the vaccine 'better' than the Oxford/AstraZeneca one?
The company said its vaccine – VLA2001 – induced broad T-cell responses, a part of the immune system believed to be involved in long-term immunity.
The phase three trial recruited 4,012 people across 26 trial sites in the UK.
Valenva said the number of Covid-19 cases were similar between those given its vaccine or AstraZeneca.
It added that the complete absence of any severe Covid-19 cases may suggest that both vaccines used in the study prevented severe Covid-19 caused by circulating variants, mainly the Delta variant.
The trial's chief investigator, Professor Adam Finn, said the results are both "impressive and extremely encouraging".
Mr Finn, who is professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said the results suggest Valneva's vaccine is on track to play an important role in overcoming the pandemic.
Valneva's chief executive officer Thomas Lingelbach said the results of the trials confirm the advantages of whole virus vaccines, which use a deactivated form of the virus in them.
Mr Lingelbach said Valneva is committed to getting its vaccine approved as quickly as possible.
Valneva started commercially manufacturing VLA2001 at its Livingston site in January this year. The firm also has a site in Sweden, where the final stages of vaccine processing take place.
Valneva said it has started the early stages of vaccine production and has scaled up its manufacturing capabilities, to meet the demand it projects for the VLA2001 jab.