Paris (AFP)

Sanofi will not market a messenger RNA vaccine against Covid-19, relying on its other booster vaccine candidate in development, but still intends to use this new technology against other viruses.

The French laboratory, despite positive intermediate results, considers that its messenger RNA vaccine would arrive too late on the market, while 12 billion doses of anti-Covid vaccines by other manufacturers, American, European or Chinese, will have in total been produced by the end of the year.

"There is no need for public health to have another messenger RNA vaccine," Thomas Triomphe, vice president of the vaccines branch of Sanofi, told AFP.

The World Health Organization qualifies this statement, telling AFP that it needs "as many quality vaccines as possible" to vaccinate the whole planet.

But she adds that "however, many other vaccines are under development" and several are in the process of being licensed.

Initial data from Sanofi's trial showed seroconversion, that is, the making of antibodies, in 91% to 100% of participants two weeks after the second injection, Sanofi announced Tuesday.

In addition, no side effects had been observed and the safety profile was comparable to that of other Covid-19 RNA vaccines, such as those developed by the German-American tandem Pfizer-BioNTech and by the American biotech Moderna.

The French group is working in parallel with the British GSK on another vaccine, based on a recombinant protein.

For this vaccine, the results of the phase 3 clinical trial - the last before marketing - are expected by the end of the year.

This will be a reminder to be given to all people who have already been fully vaccinated, regardless of the type of serum used among the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson trio.

Sanofi has confirmed an order for more than 75 million doses of this recall by the European Union and the United Kingdom, which should be added to an order from the United States, for a price of less than 10 euros per dose.

The laboratory said at a press conference on Tuesday that it did not believe in the need for an annual vaccination against Covid, like the flu, but believes that "it may be necessary to consider" a fourth dose "if a lot of variants are circulating".

Following these announcements, the price of Sanofi was up 0.40% in the middle of the day, in a declining market.

- Flu target -

Sanofi had been working for more than a year and a half with Translate Bio on this RNA vaccine, and even bought this American biotech at the beginning of August for some 2.7 billion euros.

The group has already launched initial trials for a monovalent RNA vaccine - with a single strain of the virus - against seasonal influenza.

He said Tuesday he wanted to launch clinical trials against influenza next year, this time with a quadrivalent vaccine.

The laboratory wants to position itself on this technology which, until Covid, had not made it possible to market any drug or vaccine.

Beyond Covid, messenger RNA is a turning point not to be missed, in particular for a pharmaceutical group traditionally specialized in vaccines and which fell behind during the pandemic.

Paul Hudson, CEO of Sanofi, September 8, 2021 in Paris JOEL SAGET AFP / Archives

Sanofi recently stepped up its actions on RNA.

In addition to the takeover of Translate Bio, he announced in June that he would spend at least two billion euros by 2025 in research on new RNA vaccines, investments that should continue beyond of this period.

"Our goal is to unleash the potential of messenger RNA in other strategic areas, such as immunology, oncology", ie the treatment of cancers, "and rare diseases, in addition vaccines ", underlined a few weeks ago Paul Hudson, general manager of Sanofi.

According to the analysis company Global data, "the oncology market is the one that is most likely to benefit from it."

© 2021 AFP