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(REUTERS): Bahrain has granted emergency use authorisation to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by France’s Valneva (VLS.PA), the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Valneva expects to deliver the first shipments of its VLA2001 vaccine to the kingdom at the end of March, after it signed an advance purchase deal for one million doses in December last year.
“As the only dual-adjuvanted, inactivated COVID-19 vaccine approved in Bahrain, VLA2001 will provide a differentiated vaccine option to the Bahraini population and medical community,” said CEO Thomas Lingelbach.
“We are looking forward to addressing the evolution of the pandemic in the Middle East and starting to deliver our first vaccines in the region.”
An adjuvant is a vaccine ingredient that helps create a stronger immune response. An inactivated vaccine consisting of virus particles grown and then killed to destroy disease-producing capacity.
Late last month, the company had said it expected to start shipments of its vaccine in Europe soon after it is recommended for conditional approval at the end of March, as it received a list of questions in an initial regulatory assessment.
The VLA2001 vaccine is currently the only whole virus, inactivated, adjuvanted Covid-19 vaccine in clinical development in Europe.
Earlier this year, Bahrain approved Pfizer’s Paxlovid anti-viral Covid-19 drug for emergency use. It has been hailed a “major breakthrough” in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
