UK Government Signs Deal For 60Mln Doses Of GSK, Sanofi Vaccine Against COVID-19

The UK government has signed a deal with the pharmaceutical firms GSK and Sanofi for 60 million doses of a candidate vaccine against COVID-19, according to a press release on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th July, 2020) The UK government has signed a deal with the pharmaceutical firms GSK and Sanofi for 60 million doses of a candidate vaccine against COVID-19, according to a press release on Wednesday.

Sanofi and GSK's candidate vaccine, which uses recombinant protein-based technology, is expected to enter clinical trials in September, and a Phase 3 study will begin in December, with the pharmaceutical firms looking to gain regulatory approval by summer 2021, the UK government said.

"It is important that we secure early access to a diverse range of promising vaccine candidates, like GSK and Sanofi, to increase our chances of finding one that works so we can protect the public and save lives," business Secretary Alok Sharma said in the press release.

The UK has already struck a deal for 100 million doses of a vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. A further agreement was reached earlier in July for a combined 90 million doses of two other candidate vaccines that are being produced by BioNtech/Pfizer and Valneva.

The government also confirmed that 72,000 people have signed up to receive further information about participating in future vaccine trials.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care has registered 300,692 lab-confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease since the start of the outbreak. Public health officials in the country confirmed 581 new positive tests on Tuesday.

The country's COVID-19 death toll rose by 119 to 45,878 on Tuesday, the department confirmed.