NEW YORK: The French drugmaker Sanofi said on Friday that it had secured an agreement of up to $2.1 billion to supply the US government with 100 million doses of its experimental vaccine, the largest such deal announced to date. The arrangement brings the Trump administration’s investment in coronavirus vaccine projects to more than $8 billion. Under the deal, Sanofi and its partner, UK pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline, will receive federal funding to pay for clinical trials as well as for manufacturing the vaccine. The company expects to begin clinical trials to test for safety in September.
Meanwhile, Anthony Fauci, top US infectious disease expert, reassured members of Congress and the public on Friday that the US would likely have a safe and effective vaccine by the end of this year or early in 2021, and cast doubt on efforts by Russia and China. “I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they’re administering the vaccine to anyone,” he said.