Valneva share price plummets after UK government terminates contract
The UK government has terminated a supply agreement with the French-Austrian vaccine company, Valneva, causing share price to drop by as much as 45 per cent.
The government ordered 100 million doses of Valneva’s Covid-19 vaccine, increasing its request by 40 million in February. The contract supported 100 jobs at the company’s vaccine production site in West Lothian, Scotland.
In a statement, Valneva said, “HMG has alleged that the Company is in breach of its obligations under
the Supply Agreement, but the Company strenuously denies this.”
Valneva has said it will continue its development plan for the VLA2001 Covid-19 vaccine despite the contract termination.
A spokesperson said, “Valneva continues to be committed to the development of VLA2001 and will increase its efforts with other potential customers to ensure that its inactivated vaccine can be used in the fight against the pandemic.”
Testing for the company’s pivotal Phase 3 trial, Cov-Compare, is ongoing at Public Health England with results expected to be available by the end of 2021. The trial will form part of Valneva’s rolling submission for conditional approval of VLA2001. Valneva believes that initial UK approval could be granted in late 2021.
In February, when the contract was approved, Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said that Valnev would “not only help tackle Covid-19 here in the UK,” but would also “aid our mission to ensure there is a fair supply of vaccines across the globe.“
The company has previously leveraged its expertise to rapidly advance a broad range of vaccine candidates into and through the clinic, including candidates against Lyme disease and the chikungunya virus.
Valneva’s share price has dropped from €19.98 on Friday to lows of €11.0 today, a drop of 45 per cent.
Read more: UK orders 100m doses of Valneva’s Covid-19 vaccine ahead of clinical approval