The Sanofi logo is seen at the company’s research and production center in Vitry-sur-Seine, France, on August 6, 2019.
Charles Platiau | Reuters
Sanofi will fill and package millions of doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine starting in July to help meet the huge shooting demand of U.S. drug manufacturers.
The French company will aim to help supply more than 100 million doses of the vaccine this year from its German plant in Frankfurt, CEO Paul Hudson told Le Figaro on Tuesday.
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, as well as other Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers like AstraZeneca, are struggling to meet the huge demand for shots that are the world’s best bet to overcome the pandemic.
Last month, Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline said a jointly developing Covid-19 vaccine had shown an insufficient immune response in the elderly, which delayed its release later this year.
The company has since come under pressure to look for ways to help with Covid-19 vaccines devised by other drug manufacturers as the pandemic intensifies again in Europe and elsewhere.
“Since our main vaccine arrives a few months late, we wondered how we could be of help now,” Hudson said.
Sanofi is also working on another candidate for the Covid-19 vaccine with US company Translate Bio, which uses mRNA technology, similar to the Pfizer / BioNTech approach. Phase I testing is expected to begin this quarter.
Hudson confirmed in the interview that Sanofi remains committed to its two vaccine projects.