Covid-19: Sanofi’s vaccine should be available by December

Published on : 07/05/2021 – 10:59

Sanofi’s Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be available by the end of the year. After a phase 3 launched at the end of May, the vaccine of the French pharmaceutical group is expected by December, declared Monday, July 5 on France Inter the president of Sanofi France, Olivier Bogillot.

“We are on a different technology from messenger RNA (…), this is what we use for influenza vaccination, it is a technology that has been proven for a few years,” he said. , referring to a recombinant protein with an adjuvant that stimulates the immune system.

Olivier Bogillot estimated that Sanofi’s vaccine would still be useful despite its late arrival on the market, four vaccines having already been approved by the European Medicines Agency – Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen.

“There are still many French people who are not vaccinated. We will have to reach a very high level of collective immunity with the arrival of variants,” said the president of Sanofi France. “There is also the whole world: today, only 20% of the world population is vaccinated.”

Setback of several months

The late arrival of Sanofi is explained by dysfunctions in the development of its vaccine, which suffered a setback of several months.

This setback had sparked controversy in France, where neither public research nor private research have yet succeeded in marketing a nationally produced anti-Covid vaccine. Since then, the Sanofi group has continued to ensure that its product will still find its place.

>> To read also: “Anti-Covid-19 vaccines: Pasteur and Sanofi, symbols of the decline of French research?”

With AFP and Reuters