The chief executive of French speciality vaccine company Valneva, Thomas Lingelbach, has said that he expects the company's COVID-19 vaccine can start to be used in the UK between July and September 2021, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

Lingelbach was quoted as telling The Mail newspaper on 17 January 2021:

"We are days away from starting the commercial manufacturing", adding, "We cannot release it without regulatory approval so we're in a little bit of a Catch-22 situation and there are certainly scenarios that we are currently discussing with the regulators. But we have already signed up to give priority to the UK and this is something we're currently working on."

Reportedly, Valneva has agreed to provide the UK with 60 million doses of its vaccine, compared with 100 million doses of the shot from AstraZeneca and Oxford University. It is expected to need a two-dose regimen.

Valneva had said in September 2020 that its vaccine would be available for use in the UK in the second half of 2021.