Sanofi announces it will work with HHS to develop coronavirus vaccine

As the race for a vaccine or therapeutic for the novel coronavirus continues, Sanofi Pasteur announced yesterday that it has entered a partnership with the U.S Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority — or BARDA — to develop a vaccine. David Loew, Sanofi's global head of vaccines, tells STAT that the company's previous work on SARS, a related virus, gives Sanofi a leg up in the current race. Neither Loew nor BARDA revealed the financial terms of the partnership, but Loew shared that the U.S. agency is funding Sanofi to come up with a list of vaccine candidates and produce pilot lots of the vaccines that will be used in testing. Loew said that the company expects a candidate will be ready for lab testing in the next six months, and for testing in people within a year to 18 months. As of this morning, there have been more than 75,000 Covid-19 cases, and 2,011 people have died.