The Ixchiq vaccine is also approved in the US, EU, and Canada. Credit: Taras Vykhopen via Getty Images.

Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq has been greenlit by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), allowing the single-dose vaccine to be made available for adults.

France-based Valneva has also submitted label extension applications in the US, EU, and Canada, to expand the use of Ixchiq to patients aged 12 to 17, and now plans to do the same in the UK.

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This development comes a week after Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine Vimkunya moved closer to the European market, having received an EMA recommendation for marketing authorisation on 31 January. Valneva and Bavarian Nordic’s chikungunya vaccines are now in a race to become the first in the EU indicated for adolescents and teenagers.

Ixchiq is forecast to generate $283m in sales by 2030, according to GlobalData, the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.

Ixchiq’s UK approval follows authorisations by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November 2023, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in July 2024, and Health Canada in June 2024.

The authorisation of Ixchiq was based on data from two clinical studies that enrolled around 4,500 adults. The results showed that 99% of participants who received the vaccine developed the required level of antibodies within a month, compared to none in the placebo group. Follow-up data indicated that two years post-vaccination, 97% of recipients maintained the target antibody levels.

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Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease that causes fever and joint pain. While most patients recover within a week, some develop prolonged joint pain, and a small percentage experience severe complications, including multi-organ failure. The virus is primarily found in tropical and subtropical regions, though it has been detected in parts of Europe, particularly in southern regions where mosquito vectors are present.

Julian Beach, the MHRA’s interim executive director of healthcare quality and access, emphasised that while chikungunya is mostly endemic to Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas, Ixchiq’s approval is part of the UK’s broader efforts to bolster pandemic preparedness.

In August 2023, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) opened a vaccine development and evaluation centre (VDEC) in Porton Down, Wiltshire. The site will have more than 200 scientists, who will work on almost 100 projects. 

In March 2021, a coalition of world leaders, including the then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, proposed a new treaty on pandemic preparedness and response. This was later taken to the World Health Organization (WHO) and has been negotiated, drafted, and debated by a newly established member state-led intergovernmental negotiation body.