PARIS (Reuters) – A COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Sanofi and the American group Translate Bio “will not be ready this year,” the French drugmaker’s chief executive told Le Journal du Dimanche.
Clinical trials of this vaccine, which will be based on a technology known as mRNA, based on sparingly approved vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, are expected to begin this term.
In December last year, Sanofi said it was aiming for the first potential approval of the shot in the second half of 2021, following positive preclinical data.
“This vaccine will not be ready this year, but it could be all the more useful if the fight against variants continues,” said Paul Hudson.
The CEO gave no other details. Sanofi officials were not available for comment.
The news could mean another blow to Sanofi, which has already been delayed for another COVID-19 vaccine candidate it hopes to bring to patients and for which the company has teamed up with UK GlaxoSmithKline.
The two groups stunned investors last year by warning that their traditional, protein-based COVID-19 jab has an inadequate immune response in older people, delaying launch by the end of 2021.
To appease critics, Sanofi said last month that it had agreed to fill and package millions of doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine from July.
It is reported that approximately 108 million people worldwide have been infected by the new coronavirus and more than 2.4 million have died since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019, according to a Reuters version.
Countries worldwide have started mass vaccination programs with mixed results since the beginning of the year and are now facing the emergence of different varieties that are forcing them to move even faster.
Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Edited by Dominique Vidalon