Sanofi-Gsk anti Covid vaccine, what the contract with the EU Commission provides
A contract has entered into force with which all EU member states will be able to purchase up to 300 million doses of the vaccine produced by Sanofi and Gsk after the agreement between the pharmaceutical giants and the EU Commission
After the official signature between Sanofi-Gsk and the Commission, the relevant contract entered into force today , with which all Member States will be able to purchase up to 300 million doses of the vaccine produced by Sanofi and Gsk (who have joined forces in this occasion).
States will also be able to donate doses reserved for low and middle income countries. Sanofi and GSK have pledged to make a significant portion of their vaccine supply available quickly through a partnership with Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (Covax), the International Equitable Access Facility and generalized to vaccines against Covid-19 at low prices.
The Commission has already signed a contract with AstraZeneca and continues to negotiate similar agreements with other vaccine manufacturers (Johnson & Johnson, CureVac, Moderna and BioNTech), with which it has concluded exploratory talks.
Sanofi – reads Quotidiano Sanità – will participate with its Covid-19 protein S antigen, which is based on recombinant DNA technology. GSK will make its adjuvant technology available, which is of particular importance in a pandemic situation as it can reduce the amount of vaccine protein needed per dose and thus enable more vaccine doses to be produced and consequently protect more people.
The combination of a protein antigen and an adjuvant, the Commission indicates , is well established and is used in a number of vaccines currently available to enhance the immune response. It may also improve the likelihood of obtaining an effective vaccine that can be manufactured on a large scale.
The companies launched a Phase 1/2 study in September, which will be followed by a Phase 3 study by the end of 2020. If successful, and subject to regulatory considerations, the companies aim to have the vaccine available by the end of 2020. second half of 2021.
In exchange for the right to purchase a certain number of vaccine doses in a given period, the Commission finances a portion of the initial costs incurred by vaccine manufacturers through preliminary purchase agreements. The funding provided is considered a down payment on vaccines that will actually be purchased by the Member States.
The Commission adds that "the high cost and the high failure rate make investments in a vaccine against Covid -19 extremely risky for vaccine developers: the preliminary purchase agreements therefore allow investments that, otherwise, with good odds would not be realized ”.
The EU is also committed to ensuring that anyone who needs a vaccine gets it, anywhere in the world and not just in Europe, says the Radiocor-Il Sole 24 Ore agency.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/primo-piano/vaccino-anti-covid-di-sanofi-gsk-che-cosa-prevede-il-contratto-con-la-commissione-ue/ on Fri, 18 Sep 2020 13:40:36 +0000.