This morning it was revealed that the UK has exercised its option to purchase a further 40 million doses of a promising new vaccine from Valneva SE, a French vaccine developer with its product still in stage 1/2 trials. While the vaccine would not be available until next year it could prove vital in defending against new strains as the UK deploys what will likely be an annual vaccination effort similar to the massive flu jabs programme. The UK had already ordered 60 million doses, bringing the total to 100 million…

Valneva SE CFO David Lawrence told the Today Programme that whilst the UK has been in discussions and had signed deals since the summer of 2020, the EU is yet to sign even a letter of intent with the firm, which is headquartered in Paris.

“We signed our first letter of intent with the UK Government last July, and then we signed the supply partnership and clinical development partnership with them in September, but as of yet we haven’t signed anything with the EU.”

Crucially, Lawrence went on to say that if the EU wants to get doses at the same time as the UK, they should order at the same time.

“Yes they should. Of course it comes down to slots. In turn we have got suppliers and this is why it’s important for example that the UK has exercised its option now, so we have got to book slots with suppliers who are giving us key components for the vaccine. The same will be true of other vaccines, the supply process isn’t something that you can just switch on and switch off over a couple of weeks.”

Extraordinary then that the EU expect to get vaccines at the same time as the UK when on the contracts the lumbering Commission has been slower than nimble Brexit Britain…