French vaccine maker Valneva has said that it would supply the UK with up to 190 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001, over a five-year period, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

If the vaccine development is complete, Valneva will initially provide the UK government with 60 million doses in the second half of 2021 at a cost of EUR470m.

Also, the UK government can then opt for more than 40 million doses in 2022 and a further 30 million-90 million doses, in total, between 2023 and 2025.

According to Valneva, revenues from these options could amount to almost EUR900m, adding that the UK is also investing up-front to ramp up and develop the vaccine, which is expected to have a two-dose regimen.

Reportedly, to support the contract with the UK government, US biopharmaceutical firm Dynavax will supply its CpG 1018 adjuvant to produce up to 100 million doses of Valneva's vaccine in 2021.

Valneva expects the vaccine candidate to enter clinical studies by the end of 2020 and potentially gain regulatory approval in the second half of 2021.