EU Signs COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Deal With Sanofi/GSK

In the European Union’s (EU) latest move to secure supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine, the European Commission (EC) has signed a contract with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for 300 million doses of their vaccine candidate.

The EU will provide $384 million upfront to support the scale-up of the companies’ manufacturing capabilities in Belgium, Italy, Germany and France.

The contract allows for EU member states to donate doses to lower- and middle-income countries. In addition, the drugmakers will work to provide a significant portion of the supply to these countries through a collaboration with the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative.

This is the second COVID-19 vaccine supply deal that the commission has finalized. Late last month, it reached an agreement with AstraZeneca for up to 400 million doses of its AZD1222 vaccine (DID, Aug. 28).

The commission is negotiating separate supply deals with Johnson & Johnson, CureVac, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech (DID, Sept. 10), which EC President Ursula von der Leyen said “will be concluded soon.”

The contract is the second supply agreement that Sanofi and GSK have finalized for vaccine doses. The companies landed a $2.1 billion contract with the U.S. federal government last month for 100 million doses of their vaccine (DID, Aug. 3). — Jordan Williams