Britain has secured access to up to 190 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from Valneva in deal worth as much as 1.37 billion euros.

It had already been disclosed in July that the British government had reserved 60 million doses of the French-Austrian vaccine firm's inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine under development.

The firm said it expects to begin trials of the two-dose vaccine in December and if it is successful for it to become available in the second half of 2021, according to AFP.

The 60 million doses supplied to Britain in 2021 would come at a cost of 470 million euros ($557 million). Britain will then have options on 40 million doses in 2022 and between 30 and 90 million across 2023 to 2025, which would cost 900 million euros.