Two of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, are coming together to work on a COVID-19 vaccine, which if it passes the clinical trials would become available by 2021. Sanofi and GSK’s announcement comes a few days after Pfizer announced that it had invested in a New York-based company that was developing a vaccine for COVID-19. In a joint statement, French company Sanofi and UK’s GSK said they would be collaborating to develop an adjuvanted vaccine using technology from both companies. Sanofi and GSK have vaccines for pneumonia and flu, which are among the commonly administered vaccines in the West.
In this new JV, Sanofi said it would contribute its S-protein COVID-19 antigen, which is based on the recombinant DNA technology. The technology has produced an exact genetic match to the proteins found on the surface of the SARS-Cov2 virus, and the DNA sequence encoding this antigen has been combined into the DNA of the baculovirus expression platform which is the basis of Sanofi’s influenza vaccine. GSK will provide its adjuvant technology platform which helps in mass production of dosages with less dose of vaccine proteins. “As the world faces this unprecedented global health crisis, it is clear that no one company can go it alone,” Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson said.
The companies are aiming to get on with Phase 1 of the clinical trial by the second half of 2020 and expect to make the vaccine available by 2021. On possible pricing, the companies said global access to the COVID-19 vaccine would be a priority and that they “are committed to making any vaccine that is developed through the collaboration affordable to the public and through mechanisms that offer fair access for people in all countries”.
Source: Economic Times