A new vaccine manufactured in Europe by Sanofi and GSK claims 100% efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations, and it could be an effective booster after other COVID-19 shots, according to the manufacturers.
The companies received billions of dollars from Donald Trump’s brainchild, “Operation Warp Speed.” Since Biden isn’t calling it that anymore, how are they going to describe where the money came from?
At any rate, this is welcome news for most of the rest of the world. The U.S. vaccination rate is now at 75% for one shot of the two-shot Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and 65% of patients who have received both shots.
The two-shot Sanofi-GSK vaccine is expected to be approved by the FDA for emergency use in the next few weeks.
In laboratory studies, two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine stimulated the production of more neutralizing antibodies than an approved mRNA vaccine, according to the companies. The data have not yet been published. The vaccine was safe and well-tolerated by adults of all ages, the companies said.
The best target for Covid vaccines is a protein called spike that covers the surface of the virus like a crown. While the mRNA vaccines contain the genetic instructions for making the protein, the Sanofi-GSK vaccine uses a slightly modified version of the protein itself to stimulate an immune response.
In fact, that’s exactly how vaccines have been made for 150 years. Sanofi-GSK was planning to introduce the vaccine last year, but clinical trial results on older people were disappointing. They went back to the drawing board and created a stronger vaccine.
The new vaccine had an efficacy of 75 percent against moderate-to-severe disease. It showed 58 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease in its Phase 3 clinical trial. Although that number is lower than was observed for the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in their initial trials, it is “in line with expected vaccine effectiveness in today’s environment dominated by variants of concern,” Sanofi and GSK said in a statement. The number of infections observed in the trial was small, however, and the efficacy may have been lower in a bigger trial.
Used as a booster dose after one of the other available coronavirus vaccines, the Sanofi-GSK shot increased antibody levels by 18- to 30-fold. The companies intend to submit the vaccine for authorization to regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe, they said on Wednesday.
For those hesitant in getting jabbed with the relatively new technology represented by mRNA vaccines, it might be reassuring to know that the old-fashioned way still works. In fact, laboratory studies found that two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine stimulated the production of more neutralizing antibodies than mRNA vaccines already on the market, according to the companies.