By Vlad Schepkov
Shares of Valneva SE (NASDAQ:VALN) are among the morning’s biggest movers, as the beleaguered vaccine maker’s stock is up nearly 90% in pre-market trading, on the announcement that the company received an investment from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE).
Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will invest €90.5 million, or about $95 million, in the French company, acquiring an 8.1% stake at a price of €9.49 per share.
The investment comes as the extension of the existing research and licensing agreement between the two companies over VALN’s VLA15 – the two are co-developing the Lyme disease vaccine candidate, and if successful, Valneva stands to tiered royalties ranging from 14% to 22% as well as up to $100M in milestones.
Pfizer previously indicated it plans to initiate Phase 3 trial of VLA15 in Q3 of 2022, targeting potential Biologics License Application (BLA) to the FDA in early 2025.
Valneva, with its main listing on Euronext Paris, is best known to US investors for VLA2001 – its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, for which the company managed to snap up UK and EU pre-orders for up to 160 million doses early in the pandemic - most of the orders later fell through.
Prior to the announcement, Valneva’s US ADRs were trading down nearly 75% YTD.