Agreements relate to vaccine candidate using Sanofi’s recombinant protein-based technology and GSK’s
pandemic adjuvant.
Both companies are committed to making their COVID-19 vaccine affordable and available globally.
Sanofi and GSK have today signed agreements with the Government of Canada for the supply of up to
72 million doses of an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine, beginning in 2021.
Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Sanofi Pasteur, said: “Today’s
announcement showcases our unwavering commitment to develop a COVID-19 vaccine that is available
to everyone when it comes to market. To address a global health crisis of this magnitude, it takes
partnerships and we are grateful to Canada for their collaboration, and to GSK for partnering with us to
develop a safe and effective vaccine.”
Roger Connor, President of GSK Vaccines said:"GSK is proud to be working in partnership with Sanofi to
make this vaccine available as soon as possible in Canada. Both companies have significant R&D and
manufacturing capability world-wide and are already working hard to scale up production. This
announcement from the Government of Canada supports our ongoing efforts.”
Both companies have vaccine manufacturing sites in Canada that are contributing to overall global
COVID-19 vaccine development, and these plus their global industrial networks will play a pivotal role in
the production of the COVID-19 vaccine doses for Canada – as agreed today.
The Companies initiated a Phase 1/ 2 study on 3rd September and anticipate first results in early
December 2020, to support the initiation of a Phase 3 study before the end of the year. If these data are
sufficient for licensure application, it is planned to request regulatory approval in the first half of 2021. In
parallel, Sanofi and GSK are scaling up manufacturing of the antigen and adjuvant with the target of
producing up to one billion doses in total per year globally.
Sanofi and GSK are committed to making the COVID-19 vaccine available globally
On 18th September Sanofi and GSK signed a final agreement with the European Commission to supply
European countries with up to 300 million doses from their European industrial networks.
In July 2020, Sanofi and GSK announced a collaborative effort with the U.S. government to supply up to
100 million doses of their adjuvanted COVID-19 recombinant vaccine. The U.S. government has a
further option to discuss the purchase of up to an additional 500 million doses longer term. Both
Companies also agreed with the UK government to supply up to 60 million doses of recombinant protein-
based COVID-19 vaccine.
The partners plan to supply a significant portion of total worldwide available supply to COVAX, the
vaccines pillar of the ACT-Accelerator (Access to COVID-19 Tools), a global collaboration of leaders of
governments, global health organizations, businesses and philanthropies to accelerate development,
production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
GSK commitment to tackling COVID-19
GSK is collaborating with companies and research groups across the world working on promising
COVID-19 vaccine candidates through the use of our pandemic adjuvant technology. The use of an
adjuvant is of particular importance in a pandemic situation since it may reduce the amount of vaccine
protein required per dose, allowing more vaccine doses to be produced and therefore contributing to
protecting more people. GSK does not expect to profit from COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic
phase, and will invest any short-term profit in coronavirus related research and long-term pandemic
preparedness, either through GSK internal investments or with external partners.