While Europe struggles with a shortage of vaccines, the United Kingdom has started to manufacture up to 60 million doses of a new COVID vaccine – on its own territory.
French biotechnology Valneva will begin producing its experimental dose of COVID at a plant in Livingston, Scotland, ahead of testing and regulatory approval, the government announced on Thursday.
“When starting manufacturing, we will have a quick start on implementing these products as quickly as possible to protect the British public if they receive regulatory approval,” said business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Twitter TWTR
on Thursday that the Valneva vaccine “will be another vital tool in our fight against the virus, if approved”.
The news comes at a time when the European Union faces increasing pressure on the speed of its inoculation program, which has been exacerbated by pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca United Kingdom: AZN
and Pfizer PFE
both announcing delays in the delivery of their vaccines due to production problems at European factories.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country is likely to face a shortage of vaccines until April, when he called for a vaccination summit involving pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers and politicians to look for ways to speed up deployment in the bloc.
“We will still have at least 10 difficult weeks with scarcity,” he said in a tweet On thursday.
His comments were made when the vaccines committee in Germany recommended the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine only in people between 18 and 64 years of age, according to reports from the news service.
Meanwhile, Madrid health officials said on Wednesday that they had stopped COVID vaccinations this week and next, as vaccines are running out.
“Unfortunately, as we suspected, the pace of deliveries has been interrupted,” Madrid’s regional vice president, Ignacio Aguado, told reporters, adding that the region had vaccinated 180,000 people since the campaign began.
In contrast, more than 7.1 million people across the UK have already received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford, or the injection made by German biotechnology BioNTech XE: 22UA
and its American partner Pfizer UK: 0Q1N.
The government, which set a goal to inoculate 15 million of the most vulnerable citizens by mid-February, guaranteed early access to 367 million doses of seven vaccines, including that produced by American biotechnology Modern MRNA.
The EU, which signed an agreement with AstraZeneca AZN
in August, for 300 million doses, with an option of over 100 million, it now requires the Swedish and British pharmaceutical company to divert supplies of its COVID-19 vaccine from UK factories to deal with the shortage.
Read: EU requires access to UK-made AstraZeneca vaccines as scarcity dispute intensifies
The two sides met on Wednesday night, during which AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, pledged to work with the EU to resolve the issue.
“
“We are committed to an even closer coordination to jointly chart a path for the delivery of our vaccine in the coming months, while continuing our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans without profit during the pandemic.”
“
“We had a constructive and open conversation about the complexities of increasing the production of our vaccine and the challenges we face,” said an AstraZeneca spokesman. “We commit to even closer coordination to jointly chart a path for the delivery of our vaccine in the coming months, as we continue our efforts to bring this vaccine to millions of Europeans without profit during the pandemic.”
EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a tweet on Wednesday night that the 27-member bloc lamented the “continued lack of clarity” in the delivery schedule.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford shot is expected to receive emergency clearance for use in the EU on Friday.
AstraZeneca’s shares fell 1.74% in London trading on Thursday morning.
The meeting between the EU and AstraZeneca took place just hours after the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi FR: SAN
said it will join BioNTech UK: 0A3M
and Pfizer to manufacture up to 125 million doses of its COVID injection.
Valneva is developing an inactivated whole virus vaccine, a more traditional approach than BioNTech BNTX
and Pfizer, which uses the so-called messenger RNA, or mRNA, approach, which sends a message to cells telling them to create proteins that can generate an immune response.
Read: New vaccine candidate COVID-19, Valneva, starts clinical trials
The French company’s vaccine candidate is currently in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, involving 150 volunteers at sites in Bristol, Birmingham, Southampton and Newcastle, to assess the safety of the experimental injection and whether it produced an immune response in healthy adults.
If successful, Valneva will conduct a larger study in April 2021, with more than 4,000 volunteers testing two doses of the vaccine in two groups: those aged 18-65 and over 65. The candidate vaccine may then be available in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“We believe that our vaccine, assuming successful development, can make a major contribution in the UK and beyond,” Valneva Chief Executive Thomas Lingelbach said in a statement on Thursday.