GSK, Sanofi COVID vaccine effort: Late 2021, companies say

Drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi say their potential COVID-19 vaccine won’t be ready until late next year as they seek to improve the shot’s effectiveness in older people. An executive at Sanofi said the French pharmaceutical giant was “disappointed” by the delay but remains confident the two partners in the venture will develop a safe and effective vaccine.

The companies said Friday that early-stage trials showed the vaccine produced an “insufficient” immune response in older adults, demonstrating the need to refine the product so it protects people of all ages. They said they now expect the vaccine to be available in the fourth quarter of 2021.

GSK and Sanofi, based in London and Paris, respectively, said they were confident of the vaccine’s ultimate success due to positive results from other tests.

“We care greatly about public health, which is why we are disappointed by the delay announced today, but all our decisions are and will always be driven by science and data,” said Thomas Triomphe, head of Sanofi’s vaccine unit, in the December 11 statement. “No single pharma company can make it alone; the world needs more than one vaccine to fight the pandemic.”

In adults ages 18 to 49, the vaccine produced an immune response comparable to patients who had recovered from COVID-19, the companies said. In addition, they reported positive results from a “challenge study” in which non-human primates were intentionally exposed to the virus.

“Based on previous experience and other collaborations, we are confident that GSK’s pandemic adjuvant system, when coupled with a COVID-19 antigen, can elicit a robust immune response,” said Roger Connor, president of GSK Vaccines, in the statement. “It is also clear that multiple vaccines will be needed to contain the pandemic.”

Separately, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is likely to soon receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration after a federal advisory panel on Thursday recommended the step.

The Food and Drug Administration said on December 11 that it will “rapidly work” toward issuing such an approval, which will kick off a massive nationwide operation to get nearly 3 million doses of the vaccine to hospitals and drug stores across the country.

The experts on the federal advisory panel voted 17 to 4 in favor of recommending the drug for emergency use for people ages 16 years and older, with one of the members withholding. Health care workers and nursing home residents will be among the first to get the vaccine.