Vaccine maker Valneva less hopeful of Europe-wide deal

French-Austrian vaccine developer Valneva said Wednesday it would "deprioritise" centralised talks with the European Commission to supply its coronavirus shot across the 27-nation EU, switching instead to "a country by country basis".

"We've committed significant time and effort to try to meet the needs of the central EC procurement process. Despite our recent clinical data, we have not made meaningful progress," chief executive Thomas Lingelbach said in a statement.

Valneva is "consequently deprioritising the ongoing centralised discussions with the European Commission", the company said.

Instead it said it would focus on "those European Union member states and interested parties outside the EU" that expressed interest.

Unlike most high-profile coronavirus shots, which use various methods to prime the immune system to fight the coronavirus, Valneva's version is based on an "inactivated" version of the coronavirus itself.

Based outside Nantes in western France, Valneva last year struck a deal with Britain to supply up to 190 million doses of its vaccine.

The EU had said in January that it had finished "exploratory talks" with the manufacturer with a view to buying up to 60 million doses.

But no final deal has been struck—even as short supplies of other vaccines, most notably from British-Swedish producer AstraZeneca, slowed the start of the bloc's inoculation programme.

The company says it expects to begin large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials this month.