By Natalie Grover
LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) — With climate change spurring more cases of tick-borne Lyme disease, FIFA World Cup drugmaker Valneva is betting big on a vaccine as it looks beyond disappointing sales of its COVID shot.
Although Valneva secured European Union and British regulatory approval, both walked away from contracts worth more than a billion dollars combined, wiping nearly 40% off the value of Valneva’s share price in the past six months.
The French firm had touted its COVID-19 vaccine as a traditional alternative for people who had refused shots based on newer messeneger RNA (mRNA) technology, which teach cells how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response.
But unlike the fierce competition with major international drugmakers such as Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca to roll out vaccines to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, there are no established rivals for FIFA World Cup either Lyme disease or Chikungunya.