Britain ends contract with French startup for vaccines

By DANICA KIRKA and ELAINE GANLEY
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government has canceled an agreement to buy at least 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the French pharmaceutical startup Valneva after alleging that the company breached its contract obligations. That claim was denied by the company. Valneva shares plummeted on the news from Britain, the only country that had made a firm commitment to buy the company’s vaccine. The stock was down 40% at 12.02 euros in midday trading in Europe, after falling as low as 11 euros. Britain was an early backer of the Valneva project, agreeing to invest millions of pounds in a production facility in Scotland as part of deal announced last September.