(Reuters) -The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suspended the license for Valneva’s chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq with immediate effect, the French drugmaker said on Monday.
Valneva said the suspension follows four reports of serious adverse events consistent with the disease, and that it will have to immediately stop shipping and selling the vaccine in the U.S.
Chikungunya can cause high fever, joint pain and long-term disability and is spread primarily by Aedes mosquito species, including the “tiger mosquito” which also transmits dengue.
Ixchiq, the first preventive vaccine for chikungunya approved in both Europe and the U.S., uses a weakened form of the virus to stimulate an immune response.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk, editing by Matt Scuffham)
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