The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has given regulatory approval to the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Valneva.

The UK medicines regulator is the first in the world to approve the Valneva vaccine which becomes the sixth Covid-19 vaccine to be granted an MHRA authorisation. It is also the first, whole-virus inactivated Covid-19 vaccine to gain regulatory approval in the UK.

For this vaccine type, the virus is grown in a lab and then made completely inactive so that it cannot infect cells or replicate in the body but can still trigger an immune response to the virus. This is common in the production of flu and polio vaccines.

June Raine, MHRA chief executive, said: “Our approval of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Valneva today follows a rigorous review of the safety, quality and effectiveness of this vaccine, and expert advice from the government’s independent scientific advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines.”