24/08/2021 (Agence Europe) – The pharmaceutical company Valneva hopes that the phase III trial of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate (VLA2001), which is currently underway, will demonstrate “an efficacy rate of more than 80%”. These comments, which were made on 24 August by the company’s managing director, Franck Grimaud, were reported by AFP. The press agency notes that such efficiency would be lower than that of the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna (which is 95%), but higher than that of AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson’s vaccines (which are 60% to 70%). Valneva – who had announced in April that it was no longer giving priority to negotiations with the EU (see EUROPE 12703/17) – finally gave assurances in July that it was “continuing its discussions with the European Commission”. On 12 January, preliminary discussions over a possible centralised purchase contract for 30 million doses of VLA2001 were concluded between the two parties. (AC)