A vaccine against a mosquito-borne viral disease, hailed as ground-breaking, has been approved by European regulators. The European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Valneva’s IXCHIQ single-dose vaccine which will be manufactured at the vaccine specialist’s site in Livingston.

IXCHIQ ^® is the world’s first and only chikungunya vaccine and has now been approved in the US, Canada and the EU, while an application is being considered by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency to allow the vaccine to be given in several low- and middle-income countries.

The Company says it expects to deliver the first doses for adults in Europe in the fourth quarter of this year.

The UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is also reviewing the vaccine and could approve it in the coming months.

Valneva’s Chief Medical Officer, Juan Carlos Jaramillo M.D has welcomed the European Commission’s decision:

“The EC approval marks a crucial milestone toward making this vaccine available to as many European citizens as possible,” he said.

“In recent years, climate change has caused the Aedes mosquito, a known carrier of chikungunya and dengue viruses, to spread to areas in Europe that were previously unaffected.”

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease spread by the bites of infected Aedes mosquitoes which causes fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. The joint pain is often debilitating and can persist for weeks or even years.

In 2004, the disease began to spread quickly, causing large-scale outbreaks around the world and has now been identified in over 110 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The World Health Organization has highlighted chikungunya as a major public health problem.

Valneva’s Chief Medical Officer added:

“It is critical to provide a vaccine solution not only to European travellers going to endemic chikungunya areas, such as South America or Africa, but also to the local European populations experiencing invasive mosquito attacks." 

The vaccine will be manufactured at Valneva’s site in Livingston whose team was recognised in this year’s Scottish Life Sciences Awards for both the Innovation in Pharma Services and Drug Discovery and Outstanding Skills Development categories, the latter recognising Valneva Scotland’s aim ‘to be the best life sciences company to work for in Scotland’.

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