Sweden’s Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Lena Hallengren, has officially inaugurated Valneva Sweden’s new COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facility, the first and only one of its kind in Sweden.

“The fact that COVID-19 vaccines are manufactured in Sweden is a progress that indicate the strength of the Swedish model where companies and the society cooperate for the benefit of the population,” said Lena Hallengren at the inauguration. “The presence of a manufacturing facility in Sweden also increases the conditions for emergency preparedness. The pandemic has underlined the value of domestic production.”

Hans Wigzell Vaccine Facility

Valneva Sweden has decided to name the new facility Hans Wigzell Vaccine Facility after professor emeritus Hans Wigzell, former principal of Karolinska Institutet. The facility has been built in the former post terminal in Tomteboda, Solna. It will host both production of Valneva’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001, and also the company’c cholera vaccine.

Read more: Boosting Sweden’s resilience against future pandemics

“Early on, Valneva saw an opportunity to complement the increasing need for Sweden and for the rest of the world to have access to a broader portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines. We are extremely happy to be able to contribute to medical innovation in Sweden and to strengthen our reputation as a life science nation,” says Janet Hoogstraate, CEO, Valneva Sweden.

VLA2001

Rolling submissions for initial approval of the VLA2001 vaccine candidate with the European Medicines Agency and the UK MHRA are ongoing. Valneva anticipates receiving a positive recommendation by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for conditional approval of VLA2001 for primary immunization in adults 18 to 55 years of age in April 2022, the company states.

Photo of Janet Hoogstraate and Lena Hallengren: Jonas Axelsson