The European Commission announced on Friday 18 September that they had signed a second contract, this time with Sanofi-GSK, for the purchase of 300 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine that the pharmaceutical company is developing.
According to the European Commission, the well-established technique that is used — combining a protein-based antigen with an adjuvant — improves the likelihood of delivering an effective vaccine that can be manufactured on a large scale. Sanofi-GSK expects that the vaccine will be available by the second half of 2021.
Under this confidential contract, Member States will be able to reserve doses for less wealthy countries. The pharmaceutical company itself will endeavour to supply a significant proportion of its vaccine under the COVAX Facility, itself under the aegis of the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) (see other news).
The European Commission has already signed a contract with the AstraZeneca Group (see EUROPE 12547/7). It will continue to negotiate with other manufacturers, such as Johnson & Johnson, CureVac, Moderna and BioNTech, with whom it has concluded exploratory negotiations. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)