Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline Join Forces to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY), two European pharmaceutical companies that are leaders in vaccines for viral diseases, announced a collaboration to develop an adjuvanted vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. If the vaccine succeeds in clinical trials scheduled to start later this year, it could be available in the second half of 2021.
Sanofi will contribute a COVID-19 antigen that's based on its recombinant DNA technology. The company has produced an exact genetic match to proteins found on the surface of the virus, which are combined into the DNA of a baculovirus to create the antigen. Sanofi is using the technology in its quadrivalent flu vaccine Flublock; it obtained that product and the recombinant DNA platform through its acquisition of Protein Sciences in 2017.
Image source: Getty Images.
Source Fool.com
