French drugmaker Sanofi is ready to produce up to 600 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine next year if its clinical trials with GlaxoSmithKline go as planned, its chief executive Paul Hudson said on Friday.
“We believe we’re one of the few companies who will be able to make a vaccine at a huge scale,” Hudson said in an interview with CNBC.
On Tuesday, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced a historic partnership to jointly create a vaccine by the end of 2021.
The two pharma giants are planning to start clinical trials in the second half of 2020 and, if successful, make it available to the public by the second half of 2021.
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are one of several companies working on a potential vaccine for coronavirus.
To date, there is no approved drug for coronavirus disease, and drugmakers are racing to produce a vaccine, which is expected to take 12 to 18 months.
