Senior official in the Ministry of Health for "Israel Today": "Conducts talks with all the major companies - GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi"
GSK has two vaccines in development, but it is less advanced than other companies
Photography:
AFP
Israel is also negotiating the purchase of corona vaccines with the pharmaceutical giant GSK, which is one of the major vaccine manufacturers - Israel Today learned today (Thursday).
This is after agreements have already been signed for the purchase of vaccines with Pfizer, Moderna, Astraznica and Arcturus.
A senior Ministry of Health official said: "We are in talks with all the major companies - GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi. With each one there is a different degree of cooperation."
A source in the field stated that advanced talks are underway with GSK.
GSK has two vaccines in development, but is less advanced than other companies with which agreements have been signed.
One of the vaccines entered a third phase of research two weeks ago.
It is based on a unique technology that uses plant cells to produce the protein used for the vaccine.
The vaccine is manufactured in partnership with Canadian biotechnology company Medicago, and funded by cigarette maker Philip Morris.
In its production a plant is used which is a type of tobacco plant.
The second vaccine, a collaboration of two of the major vaccine manufacturers Sanofi and GSK, is expected to enter the third phase towards the end of the year and will be submitted for approval in the first half of 2021.
Following a report in the New York Times this morning about allegations of methodological deficiencies in the Astraznica vaccine from which Israel purchased 10 million doses, a health ministry official said: "The research methodology is reasonable. They did a super thorough job in a series of studies. "But I guess it will be clarified later and it does not seem to affect the result."