Sanofi says COVID-19 vaccine will be available worldwide simultaneously

PARIS: Sanofi will ensure that a potential vaccine against COVID-19, if approved, reaches all regions of the world at the same time, the chairman of the French drugmaker said on Thursday.

“There will be no particular advance given to any country,” Serge Weinberg told France 2 television.

“We are organised with several manufacturing units. Some of them are in the United States but even more of them are in Europe and France,” he said.

Sanofi operates 73 industrial locations in 32 countries. There is no vaccine approved yet against COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Earlier on May 14, a vaccine for the novel coronavirus could be ready in a year’s time under an “optimistic” scenario, based on trials that are underway, the European Medicines Agency had said.

The Amsterdam-based EU agency had also played down fears expressed by the WHO that the virus might never go away, saying it would be “surprised” if a vaccine was not found eventually.

“We can see the possibility if everything goes as planned that some of them (vaccines) could be ready for approval in a year from now,” Marco Cavaleri, the EMA’s head of vaccines strategy, had told a video news conference.

“These are just forecasts based on what we are seeing. But again I have to stress that this is a best-case scenario, we know not all vaccines that come into development may make it to authorisation, and may disappear,” he had added.