French biotech Valneva has started manufacturing its vaccine candidate in Scotland, the U.K. government announced Thursday.
The move follows a multi-million-pound joint investment in the facility in Livingston, West Lothian, by the U.K. government in 2020 as part of an in-principle agreement to secure early access to Valneva’s first 60 million vaccine doses, with an option to acquire a further 130 million if the jab is approved.
The vaccine candidate, which is currently in clinical trials and has yet to receive regulatory approval, uses an inactivated whole virus, similar to those developed by China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac and India’s Bharat Biotech.
The news comes as the EU is facing pressure over the speed of its vaccine rollout, with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot blaming Brussels for being three months slower than the U.K. in finalizing its purchase agreements for its vaccine, which AstraZeneca developed jointly with Oxford University.
“By starting manufacturing, we will have a running start at rolling these out as quickly as possible to protect the British public if it receives regulatory approval,” U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said in a statement.
Valneva CEO Thomas Lingelbach said: “Our team in Scotland have done an amazing job to get manufacturing started so quickly.”