Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the Valneva production facility in Livingston in January 2021, 8 months before the vaccine deal was finalised.
A covid vaccine contract that was scrapped from the UK government is charging taxpayers £358. 6 million, according to new figures.
France’s Valneva had intended to manufacture more than a hundred million vaccines at its West Lothian plant, but the deal was controversially scrapped in 2021.
Financial filings through Valneva show that he earned many millions of pounds in non-refundable payments.
The UK government reached a final settlement with Valneva last year and nothing is owed to the company.
At the time, ministers said all other main points of the solution were commercially confidential.
Meanwhile, Valneva revealed that she is now promoting the Almeida plant in cocoon to Livingston that she built to manufacture the Covid vaccine.
The UK government terminated its vaccine deal with Valneva in September 2021 due to allegations of breach of the agreement, which it “strongly denied” through the biotech company.
Details of the amount paid through the UK government to Valneva are in a filing with the US government agency. The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It says Valneva has earned a total of 420. 6 million euros (£358. 6 million) as part of its vaccine deal with the UK government.
This breaks down into €47. 5 million (£40. 5 million) in a “settlement agreement” after the deal is terminated; €78 million (£66. 5 million) of capital expenditure; and the rest in letters not reimbursable for production expenses.
The UK government has said in the past that cancelling the Valneva deal does not affect the national rollout of covid vaccines.
Image source, AP Media
Thomas Lingelbach, CEO of Valneva, speech at the factory in 2022
Valneva employs approximately 190 other people in Livingston. Its existing operations in the city are not affected by the eventual sale of the protected Almeida plant.
The French company has now hired an advertising real estate company to explore the features of the 75,000-square-foot facility, which was built to the best technical criteria needed to manufacture vaccines.
Last month, Valneva Chief Executive Thomas Lingelbach told Bloomberg News that a dozen buyers had expressed interest in the site.
As part of the original agreement between Valneva and the UK government, the French company needed to pay £69. 8 million of the advances it had earned on the occasion of the sale of the Almeida plant or the relocation of Covid vaccine production.
According to monetary statements filed through Valneva, this legal liability expired on December 31 last year.
Last year, Scottish Enterprise awarded Valneva up to £20 million in grants for its long-term expansion and vaccine development.
A total of £4. 3 million has so far been extracted from this from the Scottish Economic Development Agency.
A Valneva spokesperson said the company was “exploring features for its Almeida production plant in Livingston, first built to produce its Covid-19 vaccine, adding an imaginable sale or reusing to produce its Japanese encephalitis vaccine and chikungunya vaccine, if approved. “
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