(Adds responses from UK government, GSK)
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Britain is close to agreeing a
500 million pound ($624 million) supply deal with Sanofi
and GlaxoSmithKline for 60 million doses of
their potential COVID-19 vaccine, the Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper said that Britain was considering taking an
option to buy the vaccine should it work in human trials, which
are due to begin in September.
Sanofi was not immediately available to comment on the
report, while a spokesman for GSK declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Britain's business ministry, which is
handling Britain's supply of potential COVID-19 vaccines, said
talks were ongoing with different parties about access but did
not confirm if the Sanofi/GSK project was among them.
"The Government's Vaccines Task Force is actively engaging
with a wide range of companies both in the UK and abroad to
negotiate access to vaccines," she said.
"Appropriate announcements of these arrangements will be
made as and when agreements with any of these companies are
finalised and signed."
Sanofi is working on two possible COVID-19 vaccines, one of
which uses an adjuvant made by GSK to potentially boost its
efficacy.
Its timeline for clinical trials is behind the likes of
Moderna Inc, the University of Oxford in collaboration
with AstraZeneca Plc, and an alliance of BioNTech
and Pfizer Inc, whose projects all grabbed
headlines by moving to human trials as early as March.
Sanofi and GSK have both said they are prioritising quality
over speed in developing a vaccine.
($1 = 0.8011 pounds)
(Reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Caroline Pailliez in
Paris; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
