Doing our part in times of crisis

The world is grappling with a pandemic. People across the globe fear the impact on the health of individuals and communities, and the global economy is shaking.

As COVID-19 continues to spread, it is our job in the healthcare industry to do our part, which includes not only developing vaccines and treatments, but also keeping the public informed about the work underway. Equally important, we must ensure that the lessons we are learning during this pandemic help spark positive and lasting change.

 At Sanofi, as at other pharma companies, we are taking this responsibility seriously. Here are four areas where the industry can have both immediate and lasting impact:

1. Collaboration

Taking on a pandemic as daunting as COVID-19 requires collaboration. Across the industry, we’re seeing companies strike up or expand agreements with their existing partners and/or government agencies to pool resources, intelligence and manpower that can help us all attack this disease head-on. We are collaborating with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the US Department of Health and Human Services, to unlock a fast path toward developing a vaccine.

2. Prevention

Developing a vaccine from scratch takes years, but we can leverage what we have learned from previous efforts and potentially shorten the development timeline. This is what Sanofi Pasteur is doing by re-visiting previous work on SARS and a well-established recombinant technology platform.

3. Treatment

While a vaccine could be more than a year away, we might be able to develop effective treatments more quickly. Again, this can be done by building from existing programs. For example, Sanofi and Regeneron are exploring whether an existing therapy approved to treat the immune disorder rheumatoid arthritis could be used as a safe and effective treatment for the symptoms of COVID-19. We are pleased that the FDA has yesterday approved a clinical trial program to this end.

4. Manufacturing

In recent years, healthcare systems have increasingly experienced shortages of medicines. We recently announced our intention to create a leading active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) company by combining six of our European sites. Our aim is to secure significant API manufacturing and supply capacities that are critical for patients in Europe and beyond. While our decision is unrelated to COVID-19, building resilient manufacturing capacities is critical, and will ultimately help strengthen health systems. 

The coronavirus pandemic is bringing into clear focus the interdependencies created by a globalized world. Once we have addressed the current crisis, we will have a window of opportunity to collectively draw lessons for the future of our planet. The urgent priority now is to contain the pandemic as quickly as possible.

Every individual action counts to help slow the spread of the virus, flatten the curve of new infections, and support the healthcare professionals who are mobilized around the world to treat those who are already affected. 

We will of course continue playing our part.