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Trump administration to pump $2.1 billion for Sanofi, GSK coronavirus vaccine

WION Web Team
Paris, FranceUpdated: Jul 31, 2020, 06:50 PM IST
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Photograph:(Reuters)

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Sanofi's and GlaxoSmithKline said the US government has the option for the supply of 'additional 500 million doses'

The US government will pump in $2.1 billion in two pharma companies Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) to combat the coronavirus pandemic as part of Operation Warp Speed.

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"The US government will provide up to $2.1 billion, more than half of which is to support further development of the vaccine, including clinical trials, with the remainder used for manufacturing scale-up and delivery of an initial 100 million doses of the vaccine," Sanofi's and GSK said in a statement.

The companies said the US government has the option for the supply of "additional 500 million doses" in the long term. 

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline had earlier signed a deal with the UK government earlier. According to reports, Sanofi will conduct the final study at the end of the year. 

The race for the vaccine has taken a leap in the past few months with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca leading the race with phase 3 human trials underway in the United Kingdom and Brazil.

US-based Pfizer and BioNTech SE have said they will supply the vaccine to Japan in early 2021.

"If the data are positive, the companies can request US regulatory approval in the first half of 2021. In parallel, Sanofi and GSK are scaling up manufacturing of the antigen and adjuvant to produce up to one billion doses per year globally," Sanofi and GSK said.