(Reuters) -On Thursday, Valneva, a French company that makes vaccines, lowered its revenue forecast for the whole year. It did this because European Union countries are buying fewer of its anti-COVID shots.
In July, the European Commission cut its order for VLA2001 from 60 million doses to just 1.25 million doses. This was because European countries already had enough other vaccines and vaccination programs were slowing down.
The French company that makes drugs is based in the southwest of France. It now expects to make between 340 million and 360 million euros ($370 million) in sales this year, which is less than the 430 million to 590 million euros it had predicted earlier.
In 2022, sales of its COVID-19 product should reach between 30 and 40 million euros. In February, Valneva said that sales of the COVID-19 vaccine would bring in between 350 and 500 million euros.
In the six months leading up to June, sales of the shot brought in €3.8 million, and the company wrote down €100,6 million because of the production inventory it bought to meet the initial purchase agreement with the European Commission and then stopped making.
In a statement, CEO Thomas Lingelbach said, “Given the new number of orders from EU member states, we are looking at how to change our business.”
The company said that more work on the current COVID-19 vaccine or a possible second-generation vaccine will depend on how much money or commitments the group gets in the third quarter.
It will try to sell the remaining 8–10 million doses on international markets. This is because it thinks the vaccine’s shelf life will gradually be increased to at least 24 months.
Valneva thinks that sales of its travel-related products, like IXIARO for treating encephalitis and Dukoral for treating traveler’s diarrhea, will reach 70 to 80 million euros this year. If the market recovers faster than expected, demand may even be higher than the company’s current capacity to meet it.
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