Two of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers collaborate to speed up coronavirus effort

Two of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers are collaborating to accelerate the development of one for the coronavirus, the companies announced Tuesday.

French drug company Sanofi will partner with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to create an experimental vaccine that they aim to be tested on humans during the second half of the year. The companies are hoping to complete the regulatory approval for the vaccine by the second half of 2021.

The vaccine manufacturers will utilize Sanofi’s technology used to make the flu vaccine FluBlok, along with GSK’s adjuvant, an additive that increases the effectiveness of vaccines and the ability to mass produce them. 

The FluBlok vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2013, before Protein Sciences, which produced it, was bought by Sanofi, Stat News reported.

The companies are receiving funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. They plan to reach out to other governments and global organizations to receive more funding. 

“This collaboration brings together two of the world’s largest vaccines companies.” GSK CEO Emma Walmsley said in a statement. “By combining our scientific expertise, technologies and capabilities, we believe that we can help accelerate the global effort to develop a vaccine to protect as many people as possible from Covid-19.”

The Milken Institute says there are at least 79 coronavirus vaccines in the early stages of testing, with three at the point of being tested on humans. But most of these vaccines include technologies that have not been approved before, unlike Sanofi’s FluBlok, according to Stat News.