France s Sanofi to help rival Pfizer-BioNTech make vaccines trumbulltimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from trumbulltimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In an unusual and potentially groundbreaking decision, French drugmaker Sanofi said Wednesday it will help bottle and package 125 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer and BioNTech, while its own vaccine candidate faces delays. The announcement came as delays or production problems for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a vaccine from Britain s AstraZeneca have caused political uproar across the European Union. The EU s 27-nation vaccination effort has struggled to pick up steam, while more contagious virus variants are spreading fast and COVID-19 deaths are surging anew. Sanofi s Frankfurt facilities will help with late-stage production of vaccines prepared by Germany-based BioNTech, including bottling and packaging, starting in the summer, according to a Sanofi official. Sanofi did not reveal financial details of the agreement.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says details of government deals with vaccine manufacturers will be released as and when negotiations are concluded and when non-disclosure agreement terms have been lifted.
Updated Jan 19, 2021 | 13:46 IST
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO has warned that a failure to create mechanisms that ensure equitable access of vaccines will only prolong what is already an unprecedented global health crisis. World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus | Photo Credit: AP
Key Highlights
The WHO chief raised concerns over vaccine manufacturers prioritising regulatory approval in high-income nations (where opportunities are most lucrative), rather than working with WHO
The Director-General has consistently emphasised and re-emphasised that if governments approached the pandemic solely from positions of self-interest that it would come at a grave, but more importantly, avoidable human and economic cost
Such a “me-first approach” left the world’s poorest and most vulnerable at risk, he said at the opening of the body’s annual Executive Board meeting in virtual format.