Sanofi would be able to deliver an effective vaccine within the next 18 months but warned that the bigger challenge would be ramping up production to meet potentially massive demand.
Sanofi Pasteur vaccine division employs about 10,000 people and has 12 factories globally. It has two Covid-19 vaccines in development: one of which is a traditional protein-based vaccine, and another known as an mRNA vaccine, which is a new type that promises to be faster to manufacture but remains as yet unproven.
Sanofi is also testing the efficacy of two of its drugs already approved for other uses against Covid-19, including the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and Kevzara, which is usually used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
On Friday, the company confirmed its goal for earnings per share to rise 5 per cent this year, after reporting higher first-quarter sales and profits buoyed by people stockpiling its drugs during the Covid-19 outbreak.
That first-quarter stockpiling boost will be “largely offset” by an expected slowdown in the second quarter.
Like-for-like revenue rose 6.6 per cent to €8.97bn in the quarter to March 30 driven by higher sales of over-the-counter medicines for pain and fever, and eczema drug Dupixent.
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