The world’s largest and third largest vaccine makers, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and France's Sanofi have combined forces to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The news lifted Glaxo shares 1% to £15.60.
The vaccine is expected to enter clinical trials in the second-half of 2020 and be ready for market in the second half of next year, if all goes to plan.
Glaxo will contribute its proven adjuvant pandemic technology, which is important because it lowers the amount of vaccine protein required per dose allowing more doses to be produced and protecting more people.
An adjuvant is a substance which boosts the immune response, allowing it to produce more antibodies and give longer-lasting immunity.
French firm Sanofi will contribute its S-protein technology which has produced an exact match to proteins found on the surface of the virus, and is based upon the firm’s US-licenced influenza product.
Chief executive Emma Walmsley said, ‘This collaboration brings two of the world's largest vaccines companies together. By combining our science and our technologies, we believe we can help accelerate the global effort to develop a vaccine to protect as many people as possible from COVID-19.’
Both companies have committed to making any vaccine produced affordable to the public and available through mechanisms that offer fair access for people across the globe.
