New vaccine could be crucial in covid fight
A professor believes the Covid-19 vaccine being produced in West Lothian could be crucial in defeating the virus.
Professor Anthony Harnden told a UK Government select committee that “it is likely” that coronavirus is “a winter illness.”
However, he went onto say that the unique “whole-cell” nature of West Lothian’s vaccine will offer “wider protection” against the new variants of the virus that are causing so much concern.
French biotech company Valneva are behind the project, with manufacturing taking place at their Livingston plant, and their unique VLA2001 inactivated vaccine differs from others already on the market.
Valneva’s product contains a dead, or inactive, version of Covid-19 that won’t cause disease but can trigger an immune response.
Mr Harnden was speaking as the deputy chairman of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation when he said the four different types of vaccine which could potentially be on offer may help tackle new variants of the virus.
He told the Science and Technology Committee: “We have potentially got four types of vaccines which are going to be available – at the moment we’ve got two vaccines which we’re using – the Pfizer MRNA vaccine and the Oxford/AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine.
“But we have Novavax in trials which actually shows some better efficacy against the South Africa variant and that’s a protein subunit vaccine.
“And we have the Valneva vaccine which we’ve ordered – we haven’t seen the data from that yet – but that’s a whole-cell inactivated vaccine.
“So potentially some of these other vaccines offer a wider protection.”
The Courier revealed last month that Valeva’s vaccine could be available in the UK by July. Valneva have already signed a deal to provide the UK government with 60 million doses in the second half of 2021, and are in advanced talks with the EU for 30 million of the jabs.