“We have identified the path forward and remain confident and committed to bringing a safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccine. Following these results and the latest encouraging new preclinical data, we will now work to further optimise our candidate to achieve this goal.
"“No single pharma company can make it alone; the world needs more than one vaccine to fight the pandemic.”
Roger Connor, President of GSK Vaccines added: “The results of the study are not as we hoped. Based on previous experience and other collaborations, we are confident that GSK’s pandemic adjuvant system, when coupled with a COVID-19 antigen, can elicit a robust immune response with an acceptable reactogenicity profile.
"It is also clear that multiple vaccines will be needed to contain the pandemic. Our aim now is to work closely with our partner Sanofi to develop this vaccine, with an improved antigen formulation, for it to make a meaningful contribution to preventing COVID-19.”
Sanofi and GSK adjuvanted recombinant-protein based vaccine candidate was selected in July 2020 by U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed in order to accelerate its development and manufacturing.
The Companies have updated Governments and the European Commission where a contractual commitment to purchase the vaccine has been made.
A total of 440 healthy adults participated in the randomised double-blind study in the United States. The participants received one or two doses of the vaccine candidate, or placebo at 21 days apart.
