US Government Secures Sanofi COVID-19 Vaccine as Well

Preemptive Investment of $8 Billion in Major Vaccine Candidates

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Special Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The U.S. federal government has begun additional large-scale advance purchases of COVID-19 vaccines. This is interpreted as an effort to increase the chances of investment by securing vaccine candidates from major pharmaceutical companies in advance.

According to CNBC on the 31st (local time), the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced that it had signed a contract with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Sanofi is jointly developing the COVID-19 vaccine with the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

The U.S. government decided to pay up to $2.1 billion (about 2.5 trillion KRW), including research and development support funds for vaccines to Sanofi and GSK. The U.S. government also secured an option to order an additional 500 million doses of the vaccine.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Department of Defense secured 100 million doses of the vaccine jointly developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German BioNTech for $1.95 billion on the 22nd. The contract with Pfizer-BioNTech also includes an option to order an additional 500 million doses. Additionally, 300 million doses of the vaccine jointly developed by the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University were secured for $1.2 billion.

Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a statement on the day, "We have increased the likelihood of having at least one safe and effective vaccine by the end of the year at the earliest."

The Trump administration has spent more than $8 billion (about 9.5 trillion KRW) so far on vaccine research and development support and securing supplies through the so-called 'Warp Speed' operation.

Thomas Triomphe, Vice President of Sanofi, said, "Given the enormous global demand for COVID-19 vaccines, a single company or a single vaccine alone will not be able to meet worldwide demand."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.