As the battle with COVID-19 rages around the world, a small French biotech has a possible solution for the long-term war against the virus and the rapidly spreading mutations.
The company, Valneva SE, has a vaccine that could be more variant-proof, giving it an edge over other shots in what may be an annual campaign against a disease that¡¯s already killed more than 3 million people. The first participant in its phase three trials will be dosed this week. If successful, that could lead to an approved shot in the fall.
Valneva¡¯s shot is the only candidate in clinical trials in Europe that uses a tried-and-true vaccine technology involving an inactivated version of the whole virus it¡¯s targeting. Inactivated vaccines ¡ª a century-old approach adopted for flu and polio ¡ª take a sample of the disease that has been killed and use it to stimulate an immune response without creating infection.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.