The French pharmaceutical group Sanofi announced on Friday March 12 the launch of the first trials of its second vaccine project against Covid-19, the first still in the testing phase after having fallen behind in its development.
Read also: Covid-19: Sanofi is working hard for its vaccine and that of others
“
Sanofi and Translate Bio
”, an American biotech associated with the French, “are
starting a 1/2 clinical trial devoted to their candidate-messenger RNA vaccine against Covid-19,
” the group announced in a
press
release.
The Phase 1 and 2 trials are the first to be performed on humans as part of the development of a treatment.
They aim to verify that it is not dangerous and to provide initial information on its effectiveness, but it is phase 3, carried out on many more patients, which makes it possible to determine if it is really effective.
In this case, Sanofi will carry out these first tests on 415 people, and awaits first results for the third quarter in view of the launch of the next phase.
This is the second vaccine developed by Sanofi against the coronavirus.
The first, developed with the British GSK, must work differently, on the basis of a recombinant protein.
But its development was several months behind schedule and trials are only in phase 2. The group hopes to be able to launch it at the end of 2021. Sanofi will also help to bottle anti-Covid vaccines developed by other groups: Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, whose vaccine has just been authorized in the EU.