Vaccines minister Zahawi says UK had right to end Valneva deal

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday that the British government had the right to cancel a deal with French drugmaker Valneva to supply a COVID-19 vaccine and had told the company it had done so.

"There are commercial sensitivities around this but we have a right to cancel the Valneva vaccine and that's what we've informed the company we would do," Zahawi said.

Valneva said on Monday that Britain had ended a 1.4 billion euro ($1.65 billion) vaccine supply deal because it had alleged that the company was in breach of its obligations.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kate Holton)