European firms snag vaccine contract

The French drugmaker Sanofi said Friday that it had secured an agreement of up to $2.1 billion to supply the U.S. federal government with 100 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine, the largest such deal announced to date.

The arrangement brings the Trump administration’s investment in coronavirus vaccine projects to more than $8 billion. This multiagency effort, known as Operation Warp Speed, is placing bets on multiple vaccines and is paying companies to manufacture millions of doses before clinical trials have been completed.

“The global need for a vaccine to help prevent COVID-19 is massive, and no single vaccine or company will be able to meet the global demand alone,” Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president and global head of Sanofi Pasteur, the company’s vaccine division, said in a statement.

Also on Friday, the European Union said it was working on a deal with Sanofi to buy up to 300 million doses of potential vaccines to distribute to citizens in its 27 member countries. The announcements came two days after a deal with the British government to supply up to 60 million doses of the vaccine. Financial details of those deals were not disclosed.

Under the U.S. deal, Sanofi and its partner, the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, will receive federal funding to pay for clinical trials as well as for manufacturing the vaccine. Sanofi said the deal also includes an option for the company to supply an additional 500 million doses. The company expects to begin clinical trials to test for safety in September, followed by late-stage efficacy trials before the end of this year.

A handful of other vaccine candidates are already in late-stage clinical trials, and some, such as AstraZeneca and Moderna, have said a vaccine could be ready before the end of this year.