Sanofi Partners with Translate Bio on mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Amid Global Consortium of Over a Dozen Multinational Pharma Companies to Combat Pandemic

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) worldwide has exceeded 500,000, with more than 20,000 deaths. The global situation in the fight against the epidemic remains extremely severe.

In the race against viruses, “cooperation” and “solidarity” have become essential keywords in drug and vaccine development.

On the 28th, the WHO announced that more than 45 countries had joined the global “Solidarity” clinical trial (SOLIDARITY trial; for details on this clinical trial, see “Directly Comparing the Efficacy of Candidate Therapies: WHO Launches Large-Scale Global COVID-19 Clinical Trial”). The first patients in Norway and Spain are about to be enrolled in the clinical trial. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, stated that the more countries participate in this clinical trial, the sooner we can obtain sufficiently robust data to identify effective therapies for treating COVID-19. Below, we examine other recent collaborative developments in the field of COVID-19 research and development.

Graphic by WuXi AppTec Content Team

Sanofi Collaborates to Develop Innovative mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

On the 28th, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi, and Translate Bio jointly announced a collaboration to develop an innovative mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. The two companies had already reached a cooperation agreement in 2018 to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases. This new collaboration will leverage and expand upon that existing agreement.

Translate Bio will leverage its mRNA technology platform to develop, design, and manufacture candidate vaccines for the novel coronavirus. The company has already begun producing multiple candidate mRNA constructs. It has established a technology platform capable of producing clinical-grade mRNA, with each batch yielding 100 grams of candidate mRNA vaccine. Currently, the company is expanding its production capacity, aiming to achieve the ability to produce two batches per month, with each batch yielding 250 grams. This production capacity has the potential to meet the demands of pandemic response. Sanofi will provide its extensive expertise in vaccines and support external research networks to further advance the clinical development of candidate vaccines.

Sanofi has partnered with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in February to develop a recombinant protein-based candidate vaccine.

“We are committed to tackling the COVID-19 health crisis through multiple diverse channels. We believe that the more approaches we explore, the greater the likelihood of success,” said Mr. David Loew, Global Head of Vaccines at Sanofi. “Having manufacturing capacity capable of meeting the strong demand for vaccines is critical. Based on our prior collaboration with Translate Bio, we believe its mRNA technology platform can help us meet this demand.”

Joining Forces with the Gates Foundation, More Than Ten Multinational Life Sciences Companies Unite to Combat COVID-19

Recently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Novartis announced that they have joined forces with more than ten life sciences companies to establish a new research and development consortium aimed at accelerating the development, manufacturing, and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.

These companies are Becton Dickinson and Co. (BD), bioMérieux, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Eisai, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. (MSD), Merck KGaA, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi.

As an initial step in their collaboration, these companies will share their proprietary compound libraries with the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, jointly established with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The compounds in these libraries already have a certain level of safety and activity data. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will rapidly screen these compounds to identify promising hit candidates. Researchers aim to advance these hit compounds into in vivo studies within two months. Meanwhile, these companies will also provide resources and expertise for further product development.

“This is a promising start to our collaboration. If any of these compounds prove effective against COVID-19, their development and scale-up for mass production will be significantly accelerated,” said Mr. Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We believe this will forge a distinctive partnership to help address this global health crisis.”

On the 28th, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced a $25 million donation to the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator to fund the research and development of COVID-19 treatments. We look forward to accelerating COVID-19 R&D efforts through financial support and global collaboration, yielding fruitful results that benefit people worldwide at an early date.

References:

[1] Novartis and life sciences companies commit expertise and assets to the fight against COVID-19 pandemic alongside Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-and-life-sciences-companies-commit-expertise-and-assets-fight-against-covid-19-pandemic-alongside-bill-melinda-gates-foundation

[2] Sanofi Pasteur and Translate Bio to Collaborate to Develop a Novel mRNA Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://investors.translate.bio/news-releases/news-release-details/sanofi-pasteur-and-translate-bio-collaborate-develop-novel-mrna

[3] Pharmas to share assets in COVID-19 consortium led by Narasimhan, Gates. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.biocentury.com/article/304754

[4] Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are working together to fund research for COVID-19 treatments as the pandemic continues to spread. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-mark-zuckerberg-find-covid-19-treatment-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-3

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