PARIS – The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced today that it will help manufacture 125 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer and BioNTech, given the delay of its candidate.
BioNTech in Germany will initially produce the vaccines at the Sanofi facility in Frankfurt starting in the summer, Sanofi said in a statement. The company did not disclose the financial details of the transaction.
The French government has put pressure on Sanofi to use its facilities to help manufacture vaccines for its competitors due to high demand and supply problems for the few vaccines that are already available.
“We are aware that the earlier vaccines are available, the more lives can be saved,” said Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson.
Sanofi and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline will start a new phase 2 study for the Covid-19 vaccine next month, the company added. The two pharmaceutical companies announced last month that their drug will not be ready by the end of 2021, as it needs to improve its effectiveness among the elderly.
The European Union has received widespread criticism for the slow implementation of a mass vaccination program. The bloc has approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and the European Medicines Agency will study on Friday to give the green light to the one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.