French drugmaker Sanofi will provide assistance to the US' Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech companies in packaging and transporting their COVID-19 vaccine starting in July, CEO Paul Hudson said in an interview with the Le Figaro newspaper
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2021) French drugmaker Sanofi will provide assistance to the US' Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech companies in packaging and transporting their COVID-19 vaccine starting in July, CEO Paul Hudson said in an interview with the Le Figaro newspaper.
He noted that the relevant agreement between the firms was reached on Tuesday, adding that Sanofi decided to join efforts with Pfizer and BioNTech because it was falling several months behind with its own vaccine project.
"We will use our plant in Frankfurt, Germany to package the product that will be supplied to us by Pfizer-BioNTech from July," Hudson said, as cited by the newspaper late on Tuesday.
Sanofi's site is located not far from the BioNTech headquarters, which simplifies the task, he explained, adding that the preparation of vaccine doses for transportation and use requires certain conditions, including the sterile environment and low temperatures.
Hudson expects the companies to make deliveries of over 100 million Pfizer vaccine doses to the European Union.
In December, the vaccine developed jointly by Sanofi and UK-based GSK drugmaker was announced to be delayed due to the unsatisfactory interim results of the first clinical trials phase. The firms expect the vaccine to become available in late 2021.
In the meantime, the EU states have expressed dismay over the recent Pfizer-BioNTech announcement on delays in shipments of their vaccine to focus on the upgrade of a production plant in Belgium. Although the delivery schedule is expected to get back on track in late January, many European nations were angered with the reduction in doses, as the vaccination campaigns, launched by the EU in late December, had to be halted or scaled down.
