COVID-19: European Union approves for first time Sanofi vaccine

The European Commission authorized Thursday the new vaccine manufactured with the British GSK, and intended for the recall of adults already vaccinated.

Le Monde with AFP

For the first time since the arrival of COVID-19, Sanofi sees one of his approved vaccines. In accordance with the favorable opinion rendered Thursday, November 10, by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Commission authorized as a reminder dose the vidprevtyn beta, based on so -called recombinant protein technology, developed jointly by the French laboratory and The British Glaxosmithkline (GSK).

This vaccine, which gave positive results against the omicron variant during clinical trials, is formulated with the antigen of Variant Beta and the Adjuvant de GSK. VIDPREVTYN BETA is intended for recall vaccination in adults having previously received a vaccine against COVVI-19 to messenger RNA or adenovirus, explains the laboratory.

Doses are ready to be distributed in the countries of the European Union and in the United Kingdom, in accordance with early purchasing contracts, relating to 70 million doses, adds the company. “A dose of reminder of VidPrevtyn Beta should be at least as effective as Cumirnaty [of Pfizer] to restore protection against COVVI-19,” said EMA in a press release.

soap of two years

This new vaccine comes to join that of the German-American tandem Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna, Astrazeneca, Janssen, Novavax and Valneva, already approved in Europe. The epilogue of a two -year -old soap opera who will have earned many criticisms in Sanofi, as the laboratory, yet a global specialist in vaccines, has gone late compared to its competitors.

While he had initially promised a billion doses in 2021, these were never materialized, due to a dosage problem during clinical trials. At the same time, Sanofi has also tried to develop an anti-Cavid vaccine using messenger RNA technology, before finally giving up.

Conversely, Moderna and Pfizer-Biontech put their vaccines on record time. From the end of 2020, they used innovative RNA technology, and their vaccines were approved in Europe, almost two years before that of Sanofi. “It is, it must be recognized, a failure (…) in relation to the speed it was necessary,” admitted the president of Sanofi, Serge Weinberg, before the general meeting of shareholders, in May. The group has in reaction invested massively in the messenger RNA, with a key research center in development in the Lyon region.

a market already saturated?

If this decision was expected, can the new vaccine just approved can find its place, in this market already largely dominated by other laboratories? Moderna, Pfizer and Biontech have already cut the lion’s share. As an example, Pfizer garnered $ 36 billion in 2021 for its anti-COVVID vaccine.

Production around the world has even reached such levels that manufacturers have already ceased to manufacture, due to the image of the Serum Institute of India. In France, while the eighth wave of Covid is underway, the health authorities recommend a dose of recall only for people at risk of developing a serious form of the disease. In summary, for specialists in the pharmaceutical sector, the battle has already been waged.

Even Moderna, a few days ago, revised its sales forecasts for its Spikevax vaccine for 2022, which will bring back 18 to 19 billion dollars, two to three billion less than initially planned.

For its part, the Franco-Austrian Laboratory Valneva announced on Thursday that it was going to cut in its workforce, to remove up to a quarter of the posts, after having stopped production of its own vaccine against the covid- 19, authorized by the European Union in June. Unless it is also a question for Sanofi to sharpen his weapons for a potential combined Vonouse-Cavid vaccine, a project in which others have already launched, like Pfizer and Moderna.

/Media reports.