The UK government has added an extra 40 million doses of the French owned, Scottish made Valneva Covid-19 vaccine to its original order of 60 million doses, which if approved, will be delivered in the second half of 2021.
The vaccine is currently undergoing phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials across the UK and discussions will start this week between the French manufacturer and the UK medicines regulator, MHRA on the plans for phase 3 trials set to commence in April.
“Backed with major investment from the UK Government, Valneva’s site in Scotland will be a vaccine production powerhouse,” says Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng.
The company started to manufacture the vaccine in Scotland on 28th January and the factory aims to be able to distribute around 250 million doses of the vaccine annually once it has been authorised for use.
