Empty-handed (still):
Glaxosmithkline boss
Emma Walmsley
Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP
Nice speech is no longer an option. "We have licked our wounds," admits
Roger Connor
, head of the vaccines division of the pharmaceutical company Glaxosmithkline (GSK), opposite the "Financial Times". The fact that the previous market leader in the global vaccination business has not yet offered a serum against Covid-19 is a "disappointing" setback. Connor's optimism sounds a bit troubled: "People will see that we weren't a trailblazer, but we're still in the race."
The good news: yesterday, GSK reported success from the clinical study of its Covid vaccine project with Sanofi. More than 95 percent of the subjects in the phase 2 study showed a strong immune reaction, tolerated the drug well and showed no serious side effects. The final phase 3 study should begin in the coming weeks, and the vaccine could then be approved by the end of the year.
Late - but still in time? After all, eleven different corona vaccines are already in use worldwide, and some more are in the final phase before approval. The protein vaccine from GSK and Sanofi is particularly suitable for booster vaccinations, says Connor. Even those who have been completely vaccinated with Biontech or Astrazeneca could use the product in the coming years if their vaccination protection wears off and the virus continues to spread - a scenario that the already successful manufacturers are also relying on, with forecasts of recurring billions in sales for years to come.
However, the supply, as scarce as it is at the moment, could end up exceeding demand.
Above all, the makers of mRNA vaccines are expanding their capacities to several billion vaccine doses annually.
The US company Novavax, which, like GSK / Sanofi, offers a protein vaccine and has already completed the clinical studies, is planning a similarly large plan (with the help of GSK), even if the approval has just been postponed to the third quarter.
Challenge to the mRNA pioneers
It is the second attempt for the GSK and Sanofi project. In December, the partners had to stop their previous studies and start all over again because of a dosing error, as it turned out. The two groups had presented themselves as particularly reliable and experienced, as helpers to the public sector with an eye for decades, with no interest in quick profit. The EU ordered 300 million cans, the global Covax initiative 200 million, the USA 100 million with an option to 500 million more. If vaccine manufacturers number one (GSK) and two (Sanofi) team up with technology that has proven itself in flu vaccines, what should go wrong?
But now the former top dogs are on the edge, relegated to helpers for the newbies. Sanofi makes itself useful as a contract manufacturer for Biontech, GSK takes on this role for the second German mRNA company Curevac. It is late itself, but the crucial efficacy data for approval is expected in the coming weeks, if not days. The GSK plant in Wavre, Belgium is also at the start. GSK, as a major shareholder in the Tübingen-based company, expects even more from the cooperation with Curevac. With money from the British government, the two companies are researching second-generation mRNA vaccines that are also effective against the newer mutations. There were also promising study results on this recently.
GSK also has several other pillars in the corona business. The active ingredient enhancer (adjuvant), which is also used in the Sanofi cooperation, was offered to several other vaccine developers. The Canadian company Medicago has advanced into phase 3 with GSK support, and another project is underway with the South Korean company SK Bioscience. The British group is also working on monoclonal antibodies as a cure for Covid-19.
Most explosive, however, is what Roger Connor told the "Financial Times": GSK is investing massively in mRNA technology, including for vaccines against other diseases - in the same field in which Biontech, Moderna, Curevac and, in the meantime, Biontech partner Pfizer see yourself as the winner of the future.
It is a declaration of war to the corona vaccination pioneers.
If successful, the current role change would only be a temporary mistake in history.
Apart from that, they have "the strongest technology portfolio in the industry," says Connor.
The vaccine division is a "crown jewel".
Breaking up fantasies about hedge funds Elliott
Currently, the group management around CEO
Emma Walmsley
(51) is not only criticized because they invested too hesitantly in the corona vaccine, did not bring their own vaccine and the share price fell. In the meantime, it's even a matter of existence for the group. In April it was announced that the Elliott Capital hedge fund was owned by corporate hunter
Paul Singer
(76) took over a "substantial" portion of the GSK shares. Elliott is said to have invested a few billion pounds in GSK, while the group no longer reaches a total of 70 billion pounds market value. Under Walmsley, of all places, who came from L'Oréal as a pharmaceutical career changer from marketing and who had the motto "I'm not a scientist, I'm a businesswoman", business success suffered. A number of failures in the pharmaceutical division with billions in projects for new cancer drugs have recently contributed to this.
What Elliott wants is not yet officially known. In the British press, however, fantasies of a complete break-up are already making the rounds. "Change is coming", the "Telegraph" quoted a warning from the US investor. Some other major shareholders swore their loyalty to the group management according to "Mail on Sunday".
Walmsley is already planning to spin off the over-the-counter medicine business that has been merged with Pfizer - but only next year, and she plans to announce details in June. An IPO with a volume of more than 50 billion dollars would be conceivable, but also a merger with a competitor or a complete sale of the business to a large consumer goods company such as Nestlé. The fact that Singer wants to accelerate the project is still the cheaper version for GSK. Samuel Johar, head of the headhunter firm Buchanan Harvey, thinks it is rather "highly likely" that GSK will be broken down into individual parts and sold. With a large US pharmaceutical company as a buyer, synergies could be leveraged - for example by reducing GSK's research. Johar speaks to the "Mail on Sunday" of the "end of a British icon".
The large, late vaccine offensive could be an attempt to avert this threatening scenario.
ak
