Thomas Lingelbach

From the research and development stage right through to the sales, marketing and distribution of vaccines, Valneva is actively involved in every step of the process. The commercial stage vaccines biotech company is on a mission to protect people from infectious diseases through preventative medicine and has two commercial vaccines, primarily for travellers: the first is for the prevention of Japanese encephalitis; the second for the prevention of cholera and, in some countries, diarrhoea caused by LT-ETEC.

CEO Thomas Lingelbach sits at the helm of the company, which was formed in 2013 through a merger between Intercell AG and Vivalis SA, both leading European biotech players. Thomas has more than two decades’ worth of experience in the vaccine space and explains that Valneva was created to be financially self-sustainable with a well-balanced range of products that have viability in the commercial marketplace.

By divesting non-core activities, namely those which were not directly focused on vaccines and vaccine development, and investing in new commercial products and R&D, the business has managed to grow substantially.

"This leads us today to a company that is best characterised by three P’s," says Thomas. "The first P is our products. We have two commercial-stage products generating somewhere between €75-80 million in sales this year. The second P is our portfolio of R&D. We have two late-stage clinical assets in development which address hospital and healthcare-associated infections as well as promising pre-clinical product candidates in different disease areas. Finally, the third P is our platforms. We have two validated technology platforms which have already been widely adopted in the industry—the EB66® vaccine production cell line, and the IC31® adjuvant. In all business areas, we have teamed up with a variety of leading pharmaceutical companies that complement our value proposition."