France’s Sanofi to send more booster jabs to EU than Britain
French vaccine champion Sanofi has agreed to funnell more extra doses of its Covid booster jab to the EU than Britain, as countries race to roll out third doses to stave off further lockdowns.
Sanofi is in the final stages of developing its own Covid vaccine, together with British pharma company GlaxoSmithKline, with expectations it could be used for booster rollouts across the Western world.
It had initially been part of the first cohort of Covid jabs being developed, but faced a setback late last year, meaning scientists have now had more time to assess its use for boosters.
Early findings from trials suggested the jab produces a “strong immune reaction”, with late-stage data and booster study work expected within the coming weeks. Regulators could give the jab the green light before the end of the year.
The UK has ordered 60m doses of the jab out of a total 500m vaccine doses on order. Once the jab is approved, Sanofi and GSK are required to deliver 7.5m doses of the jab to Britain “as soon as possible”, contract filings released this month showed.
However, more jabs might become available if plants delivering to the EU and UK are able to ramp up faster than expected.
Sanofi and GSK are obligated to offer more of those extra doses to the EU, according to the contract released by the Government, totalling 83pc of all the extra available doses. The UK will be offered 17pc of the extra available doses.
This is thought to be proportionate to the British population compared with that of the EU. Government sources said this would ensure the UK gets its fair share.
Sanofi’s vaccine was placed at the centre of EU vaccine efforts early last year, with Whitehall sources saying that Emmanuel Macron vetoed a larger order of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to attempt to get more orders for the French company. The Elysee has always rejected such claims.
A Sanofi spokesman said it had already started work on making its vaccines and was “in continuous discussion” with countries it had struck deals with “to identify their needs, and to ensure our recombinant vaccine candidate is available accordingly, subject to local country regulations, pending licensure or emergency use authorisation from regulatory authorities.
“We are adapting our volumes to meet the requests and needs of governments worldwide, and could adapt them further in the future if those needs change.”
It comes as countries race to get booster jabs in people’s arms. In the UK, experts have warned the rollout is moving too slowly to ward off a rise in hospitalisations among more vulnerable groups, who got their jabs early in 2020.
