Trials of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine has to be restarted at the end of last year. It was due to its poor response in the elderly.
Production of the COVID vaccine developed by French firm Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will begin within weeks, the firm said.
The companies are currently in phase 3 of their trials, which will witness 35,000 adult volunteers receive their vaccine jab. The volunteers are from all across the US, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
They will test for efficacy on the primary form of COVID that spread across the world. It was after it emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019 and also the variant first detected in South Africa.
On its manufacturing, both the companies Sanofi and GSK made a statement. Saying that manufacturing will begin in the coming week to enable rapid access to the vaccine should it be approved.
Drugs regulators could give the Sanofi-GSK vaccine the green light in the final three months of this year. However, for it to happen, it is a must that they clear the phase three trials.
It was initially due to be authorized in the first half of 2021. But the companies were forced to restart the trial in December because of its poor immune response in the elderly.
UK’s previous order of 60 million doses
The UK has already ordered 60 million doses of the vaccine. Joining existing supplies from Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, and Moderna. The EU is relying densely on the French firm for its supply-having ordered around 300 million doses to use.
The design of the phase three trial conducted across a vast diversities of geographies, Sanofi said in a statement. It also allows the determination of the efficacy of the candidates among the variety of circulating variant.
The firm also said it would begin clinical analysis in the coming weeks. To see if the jab could also be used as a booster despite the vaccine the person had initially.
Separately GSK is operating with biotech firm CureVac on a next-generation COVID vaccine. The one that could be used upon numerous new variants at once. Moreover, they say that they are planning to initiate the jab in 2022.
