LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is close to agreeing a 500 million pound supply deal with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline for 60 million doses of their potential COVID-19 vaccine, the Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper said that Britain was considering taking an option to buy the vaccine should it work in human trials, which are due to begin in September.
Earlier, Sanofi and GSK announced that they have signed a letter of intent to enter into a collaboration to develop an adjuvanted vaccine for COVID-19, using innovative technology from both companies, to help address the ongoing pandemic.
Sanofi will contribute its S-protein COVID-19 antigen, which is based on recombinant DNA technology. This technology has produced an exact genetic match to proteins found on the surface of the virus, and the DNA sequence encoding this antigen has been combined into the DNA of the baculovirus expression platform, the basis of Sanofi’s licensed recombinant influenza product in the US.
GSK will contribute its proven pandemic adjuvant technology to the collaboration. The use of an adjuvant can be of particular importance in a pandemic situation since it may reduce the amount of vaccine protein required per dose, allowing more vaccine doses to be produced and therefore contributing to protect more people.
