PARIS (Reuters) – A candidate for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sanofi and US group Translate Bio “will not be ready this year,” the French drug’s chief executive told Le Journal du Dimanche.
Clinical trials of this vaccine are expected to begin this quarter, which will be based on a technology known as mRNA, on which lean vaccines approved by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna will be admitted.
In December last year, Sanofi had said it was heading for the “first potential approval” of the shot in the second half of 2021, following positive preclinical data.
“This vaccine will not be ready this year, but it could be useful at a later stage even more if the fight against variants continues,” Paul Hudson said.
The CEO did not give any other details. Sanofi officials were not available for comment.
The news could mean again for Sanofi, which has already faced a delay for another candidate for the COVID-19 vaccine it hopes to offer patients and for which the company has joined the British GlaxoSmithKline.
The two groups surprised investors last year by warning that their traditional protein-based COVID-19 stroke showed an insufficient immune response in the elderly, delaying its release by the end of 2021.
To appease critics, Sanofi said last month that it had agreed to fill and package millions of doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine as of July.
According to a Reuters account, an estimated 108 million people have been infected with the new coronavirus worldwide and more than 2.4 million have died since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
Countries around the world have started mass vaccination programs since the beginning of the year, with mixed results, and are now facing the emergence of several varieties of strains that are forcing them to move even faster.
Reports by Matthias Blamont; Edited by Dominique Vidalon