Dipal Patel, who has been the shingles vaccine's international commercial leader for GSK since 2019, has left the company and joined French biotech Valneva. Her new role will involve taking on the recently available position of chief commercial officer.

Inflicted by a deteriorating Covid vaccine market last summer, Valneva's chikungunya injection represents the company's succeeding commercial vaccination opening. If this gets authorised, it could be the first ever vaccine to protect people against the mosquito transmitted virus.

“Dipal Patel has left GSK and joined French biotech Valneva as the new chief commercial officer“

Valneva believes that now is the ideal moment to bolster its executive team in preparation for a possible 2023 market entrance. The company intends to finish an FDA filing on its candidate VLA1553 by the close of 2022.

Patel has over 23 years of expertise in the sector, so she is more than qualified to oversee the commercial push into chikungunya. One of her recent work accomplishments involves leading GSK's global Shingrix business, which is on the rise following a sales downturn brought on by Covid consequences.

Chief Executive Officer of Valneva, Thomas Lingelbach, explained that as we see “the travel industry recover, Dipal will ensure we are further growing our commercial business and preparing the best market access and launch for our chikungunya vaccine candidate.”

The firm announced plans to ‘reshape’ and downsize operations by 20% to 25% in its third-quarter stats presentation.

Valneva was forced to halt production this year after the bloc decided to go back on its decision to place an order for their vaccines.

Considering that the firm had 750 global employees at the start of 2022, the workforce reductions will impact about 175 employees. According to a statement made by Valneva earlier this month, the reduction should result in yearly savings of $12 million, but still having 25% more staff than it did prior to the pandemic.

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