Sanofi to help Moderna produce doses of COVID-19 vaccines

Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical company, will be helping Moderna with the production of COVID-19 vaccines. The move was made in an effort to allow the American pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm to fulfill its orders and meet the demand for its shots.

Sanofi confirms production of Moderna shots

On Monday, April 26, Sanofi said that it has joined hands with the Massachusetts-headquartered biotech firm so it can provide assistance with filling vials and finish the packaging of up to 200 million doses as the demand for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is high.

Sanofi will be manufacturing the shots in its facility in Ridgefield, New Jersey. While the French company shared some info about its latest partnership with Moderna, it did not disclose any detail regarding the financial aspect of their deal, as per CNBC.

This is the third contract that Sanofi was able to secure since the start of this year. It previously signed a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech, to help them with supplying more than 125 million doses of coronavirus shots. The company also pledged to complete the filling and packing of Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and it must churn out at least 12 million doses per month.

Sanofi’s contribution in fulfilling Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine supply will begin in September. While it has many deals to work on, the company is also busy in the development of its own vaccines in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline and another one with Translate Bio.

Sanofi aims to fill the bill for vaccines in the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal reported that based on the info coming from Sanofi’s spokesman, the finished doses of Moderna vaccines are for the U.S. supply where Moderna has an agreement until April 2022.

Meanwhile, Novartis AG and Merck Co. are also helping other makers of the coronavirus vaccines by forming agreements for production. The collaborations among the manufacturers are a collective effort to increase production so every nation in the world can have the doses they need.

Finally, Moderna is planning to distribute a total of 300 million doses of COVID-19 shots in the U.S. by the end of July. The delivery is projected to help President Biden achieve his goal of having the majority of American adults vaccinated by summer.