Sanofi Claims Its COVID-19 Vaccine Will Be Affordable, Can Be Kept Like Flu Vaccine in Fridge

Sanofi claims its Covid-19 vaccine will be affordable and can be kept in the fridge like regular flu vaccines.

Sanofi claims the coronavirus vaccine it is developing can be kept in the refrigerator like a regular flu vaccine, which will be easier for hospitals to manage and affordable for some countries.

Sanofi COVID vaccine can be kept in the fridge

Sanofi's France chief Olivier Bogillot said Sunday, November 15, that their vaccine candidate does not require being super-cooled. "Our vaccine will be like the 'flu vaccine, you can keep it in your refrigerator," he told CNews as reported by Straits Times. The company head also noted that their jab will be available in the market at an "affordable" price, although he did not provide additional details.

Bogillot made his remarks just days after Pfizer revealed that in the ongoing Phase 3 trials, their coronavirus vaccine had 90% efficacy in averting the virus. The pharmaceutical giant and its partner BioNTech also vowed to supply up to 50 million jabs towards the end of the year and up to 1.3 billion shots in 2021.

The only problem with Pfizer's vaccine is that to keep its effectiveness, the doses must be stored at super low temperature or at -70 degrees Celsius. This is beyond the current capacity of most hospitals around the world.

Keeping the Pfizer vaccines from factory to end users pose a massive logistical challenge even for western countries as noted by Center for Global Development policy fellow Rachel Silverman.

The Sanofi vaccine candidate is only one of more than 500 jabs being developed worldwide with eleven vaccines are already in Phase 3.

Bogillot noted that while the Pfizer vaccine is quite ahead in the vaccine development process, the company will not be able to supply all doses for all countries. "We will need to have several winners at the end of this race," he added according to the Straits Times report.

Sanofi's vaccine will be available in the market by June 2020 while the company will provide the Phase 2 test results in early December. This test round involves hundreds of volunteers. If those results are positive then Phase 3 trials involving thousands of people will begin, alongside mass production.

Moderna to release first interim analysis soon

American company Moderna Inc will be releasing it first interim analysis data for the late-stage trial of its COVID-19 vaccine ccandidate before the end of November, according to a CNN report.

To get the approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Moderna need to have at least 53 study participants to contract coronavirus. On Wednesday, November 11, the copany already reached the 53 mark, although the company is blinded which participants received the placebo or vaccine. The company is already preparing the trial data before they send it to the independent experts' panel Data and Safety Monitoring Board.

This phase 3 analysis of the COVE study will show whether the Moderna vaccine candidate is effective against the COVID-19, which was caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Like the Pfizer's vaccine, Moderna's jab uses mRNA technology, which experts believe to be highly effective.

Earlier, Pfizer-BioNTech's mRNA-based vaccine, called BNT162b2, is said to be 90% effective. Meanwhile, US top infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the US may begin giving out the shots to priority groups by the end of 2020.

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Written by CJ Robles