GSK promises 1 billion coronavirus vaccine boosters to help swell production

GSK
AFP via Getty Images
Michael Bow28 May 2020

DRUG giant GlaxoSmithKline ramped up the battle against coronavirus on Thursday by unveiling ambitious plans to produce one billion doses of a critical Covid-19 vaccine booster next year to swell global vaccine production.

The company, led by chief executive Emma Walmsley, will increase the manufacture of a substance called an “adjuvant” which is added to vaccines to make them more effective.

The move is a major boost for global drug companies pushing to develop Covid-19 vaccines because it will supercharge how well they work and massively increase the volume that can be produced.

Shore Capital’s healthcare analyst Dr Adam Barker said: “It will mean a greater number of vaccine doses can be produced more quickly, given an adjuvant means you need less dose of the virus/virus protein per vaccine.

“It’s very important, as we’ll need more than one vaccine very likely.”

Several vaccines are currently in development, including one by French drug giant Sanofi which has partnered with GSK on development.

The University of Oxford is also working with the UK’s number two drug company AstraZeneca on a vaccine known as Chadox-1 and is aiming to manufacture one billion doses.

Estimates suggests the world will need around 4.5 billion vaccine doses to stop the pandemic and moves to increase production will be welcomed by governments battling the virus.

The FTSE 100 firm has agreements with seven drug developers around the world working on Covid-19 vaccine, including University of Queensland, Clover Biopharmaceuticals and Xiamen Innovax Biotech, and initially the boosters will be used on their projects.

GSK Global Vaccines president Roger Connor said: “We believe that more than one vaccine will be needed to address this global pandemic and we are working with partners around the world to do so.”

GSK plans to use existing plants in the UK, US and Europe to make the boosters, which have previously been used in flu and shingles shots. When used on flu vaccines, the adjuvant helped increase the volume of vaccine produced four-fold.

The firm is making the shots “at risk” meaning it doesn’t know if the product will be needed or not. Vaccines are still in their early stages and despite grand plans to increase manufacturing many could flop.

The company will not make a profit from the vaccine boosters.

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