Sanofi, GSK to seek COVID-19 vaccine candidate approval

[February 23, 2022]  PARIS (Reuters) -French drugmaker Sanofi and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday they intend to submit data from their booster and Phase III efficacy trials as the basis for regulatory applications for a COVID-19 vaccine.

"We're very pleased with these data, which confirm our strong science and the benefits of our COVID-19 vaccine. The Sanofi-GSK vaccine demonstrates a universal ability to boost all platforms and across all ages," said Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president for Sanofi Vaccines.

The two companies had surprised investors at the end of December by delaying data on their COVID-19 booster candidate to this year.

In September 2021, Sanofi dropped plans for its own mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine because of the dominance achieved by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna in using the technology to fight the pandemic. [L1N2QU0BI]

Sanofi is hoping for a comeback after falling behind rivals in the race for COVID-19 vaccines, with this candidate based on the more conventional protein-based approach.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten; editing by Jason Neely)
 

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