New Sanofi-GSK COVID-19 Vaccine Highly Effective, Companies Say

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Two doses of a new COVID-19 vaccine from Sanofi and GSK were 100 percent effective against severe disease and hospitalizations, the companies announced Wednesday.

The vaccine was also 75 percent effective against moderate-to-severe disease and 58 percent effective against symptomatic disease in a phase 3 clinical trial. And when used as a booster dose after one of the other available COVID-19 vaccines, the new vaccine triggered an 18- to 30-fold increase in antibody levels, the companies said in a news release.

"We're very pleased with these data, which confirm our strong science and the benefits of our COVID-19 vaccine. The Sanofi-GSK vaccine demonstrates a universal ability to boost all platforms and across all ages," Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president of Sanofi Vaccines, said in a statement. "We also observed robust efficacy of the vaccine as a primary series in today's challenging epidemiological environment. No other global phase 3 efficacy study has been undertaken during this period with so many variants of concern, including omicron, and these efficacy data are similar to the recent clinical data from authorized vaccines."

In laboratory studies, two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine stimulated the production of more neutralizing antibodies than an approved mRNA vaccine, the companies noted. The data have not yet been published.

The vaccine was safe and well tolerated by adults of all ages, according to the companies. They said they plan to submit the vaccine for emergency use authorization to regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe. The Sanofi-GSK vaccine uses a slightly modified version of the protein itself to stimulate an immune response, a commonly used method of making vaccines.

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