The headquarters of Sanofi, May 31, 2023 in Paris (AFP/Archives/ALAIN JOCARD)
Sanofi wants to lead at least five innovative vaccines on the road to potential commercialization by 2025 and is working on a “next generation” flu vaccine based on messenger RNA, a turning point it did not have managed to take against the Covid-19.
During a conference dedicated to investors, the French pharmaceutical company said it wanted to “launch at least five new phase III programs of innovative vaccines by 2025”, in particular against bronchiolitis in young children, pneumococcus and yellow fever.
At the same time, the group, which is one of the world’s major vaccine manufacturers, reaffirmed its annual turnover target of more than 10 billion euros in this area by 2030.
In pediatrics, the last stage of clinical trials of a pneumococcal vaccine is scheduled for the first half of 2024. These infections represent “the largest market in terms of vaccines” if we exclude that of Covid-19, underlines the world manager. of Vaccines R&D Jean-François Toussaint.
In the extremely competitive therapeutic segment targeting the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia that cause tens of thousands of deaths per year, Sanofi particularly targets children aged 1 to 5 years.
In view of the first “very convincing” results of an intranasal vaccine to help them develop their own immune response to RSV, Sanofi intends “to advance it to a phase 3 study, from the beginning of next year. “, says Mr. Toussaint.
According to specialists, RSV could be just as serious as the flu virus.
– “Next generation” mRNA –
Influenza is also the subject of vaccine research by the group, which wants to “improve messenger RNA technology” as it is currently available. It indeed shows, according to Mr. Toussaint, a strong immune response for strain A but an insufficient response for strain B, a finding that is also valid for the other laboratories.
“We knew that messenger RNA was not going to be a panacea and that we had to work on a second generation. We invested in innovations that will take us a step further in the new generation” of mRNA, declares he told AFP.
Well-identified adjustments: “messenger RNA vaccines are frozen, it may pass for a pandemic but not for use against the flu”, specifies the official, presenting “substantial progress” in the Sanofi vaccine candidate which “may be stable for 12 months at 4°C”.
Sanofi, which had tried to develop an anti-Covid vaccine using messenger RNA technology, had finally given up (AFP/Archives/Fred TANNEAU)
In addition, “in a routine vaccination such as against the flu, one cannot accept being in bed for one or two days each year” because of side effects such as they may have appeared after a messenger RNA vaccination. against the Covid-19, he underlines.
Sanofi, which had tried to develop an anti-Covid vaccine using messenger RNA technology, had finally given up.
But after missing the boat and falling behind the American laboratories Moderna and Pfizer, or the German Curevac, the health industry giant showed in 2021 its desire to accelerate in this technology. He invested heavily there and created a center dedicated to mRNA vaccines.
After promising results on animals, the group intends to launch in the second half of the year, based on this technology, the first stage of a clinical trial for its candidate therapeutic vaccine against acne, an inflammatory skin disease.
© 2023 AFP
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