French laboratory Sanofi stops development of its mRNA vaccine

Sanofi is dropping plans to develop its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine despite positive results in phases 1 and 2 because of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s dominance in the market, the French pharma corporation announced on Tuesday.

“The need is not to create new COVID-19 RNA vaccines, but to provide France and Europe with an arsenal of messenger RNA vaccines for a future pandemic, for new diseases,” Thomas Triomphe, vice-president of Sanofi’s vaccines division, told AFP.

The vaccine will thus not enter phase 3 as “there is no public health need for another messenger RNA vaccine”, he continued.

On BFMTV, infectious diseases specialist Imad Kansau justified Sanofi’s choice: “it is very expensive”, he said. “It’s not a problem; it doesn’t put us at risk with regard to vaccination,” he added.

Sanofi worked with Translate Bio on this vaccine since March 2020 and even bought the US biotech last August for around €2.7 billion.

The French company will continue its work on other vaccines based on a recombinant protein and developed with the British company GSK. Phase 3 results are expected before the end of 2021.

(Clara Bauer-Babef | EURACTIV.fr)