French pharmaceutical Sanofi, struggling with delays in developing its own candidate vaccines against COVID-19, is handing over more of its vaccine production facilities to industrial competitors, teaming up with Johnson & Johnson to produce millions of doses of its rival vaccine against the coronavirus.
Johnson & Johnson is the second rival to strike a deal with Sanofi to use its facilities, an unusual collaboration for the competitive industry that now faces intense pressure from governments to accelerate the production of vaccines against the devastating global pandemic.
Sanofi’s CEO Paul Hudson said the deal announced by the company on Monday demonstrates its “commitment to the collective effort to end this crisis as soon as possible”.
Sanofi is still prioritizing the development of its own coronavirus vaccine programs, Hudson said in a company statement.
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But “where we have adequate manufacturing resources, we are taking a step forward to show solidarity in the industry and continue to do our part in the fight against COVID-19,” he added.
Sanofi said its vaccine factory in Marcy l’Etoile, near the city of Lyon, will formulate and fill single-dose vaccine vials for Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen companies.
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Sanofi will mix the vaccine ingredients sent by Janssen and fill the vials and then send the filled vials back to Janssen for packaging. The French plant is expected to produce around 12 million doses per month, starting in the second half of this year.
Sanofi has previously announced that its facilities in Frankfurt, Germany, will also help to bottle and package 125 million doses of vaccines for the rival Pfizer-BioNTech partnership.
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Sanofi’s latest announcement was quickly proclaimed by French President Emmanuel Macron. His government pressured Sanofi to use its facilities to help make vaccines for its rivals, due to high global demand for vaccines and supply problems.
“We must together accelerate the production of vaccines with industrial partnerships,” tweeted Macron.