And then there were three! Following CureVac and AstraZeneca, it is now the turn of the contract signed between the European Commission and the Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline alliance for the advance purchase of Covid-19 vaccine to be partially disclosed. A redacted version was placed online on Tuesday 9 February.
According to information leaked to the press, the European Commission paid €324 million in advance to reserve 300 million doses from the Franco-British consortium. A tweet from the Belgian Secretary of State stated that the price per dose was set at €7.56, with two doses recommended per person.
It should come as no surprise that this information was deleted from the document that was published on Tuesday, with both sides invoking commercial confidentiality.
Distribution of Sanofi-GSK’s recombinant protein candidate vaccine currently seems to be a long way off. As clinical trials are still currently underway, the manufacturer is hoping to launch the vaccine on the market in the last quarter of 2021. A new Phase 2 study will be launched in February and, if successful, will be followed by a global Phase 3 study in the second quarter of 2021.
In the meantime, Sanofi and GSK have both announced that they plan to contribute to the manufacture of competing vaccine candidates: In the second half of 2021, Sanofi will be using its plant in Frankfurt, Germany to manufacture 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is already licensed for use in Europe. GSK will be using its plant in Wavre, Belgium, to manufacture 100 million doses of the CureVac vaccine, which is currently in phase 3 clinical trials.
The Sanofi-GSK contract can be found at: https://bit.ly/3rzt2I0 (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)