London — The world will need more than one Covid-19 vaccine so drug companies must partner in the race to develop the weapons to fight the novel coronavirus, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley said on Wednesday.
Glaxo and Sanofi said on Tuesday they would develop a vaccine to fight the fast-spreading coronavirus. The drugmakers said they expected to start clinical trials for the vaccine in the second half of 2020. If successful, the vaccine would be available in the second half of 2021.
Walmsley said GSK's partnership with Sanofi brings scale to the attempt to get a Covid-19 vaccine but that there was still an enormous amount of work to do.
“The world's going to definitely need more than one vaccine when you think about demand in this hugely challenged global health crisis,” she told BBC Radio.
The adjuvanted vaccine will be developed by combining Sanofi's S-protein Covid-19 antigen and Glaxo's pandemic adjuvant technology.
“It normally takes a decade, sometimes even more, to develop a vaccine but obviously we are in an unprecedented situation, the need is incredibly urgent. We are partnering with regulators to try to go as fast as we safely can.”
Reuters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.