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Sanofi Pasteur manufactures and exports vaccines and related products for 20-26 different diseases including malaria, meningitis B, dengue fever, pneumococcal diseases, cytomegalovirus, chlamydia and HIV. Sanofi has been focused on increasing manufacturing capacity for recombinant influenza vaccine since 2019. Sanofi has owned the company Protein Sciences since 2017.
Sanofi Pasteur Limited was founded in 1914 and was formerly Connaught Laboratories Limited of Toronto. Sanofi is the leading supplier of vaccines in Canada. Sanofi Pasteur’s parent company is the pharmaceutical company, Sanofi-aventis. Sanofi Pasteur was the first Canadian organization to produce antitoxins and vaccines for rabies, diphtheria, tetanus and smallpox. In the 1950s, then known as Connaught, the company had a key role in the development to polio vaccine known as the Salk vaccine and continues to produce the Salk vaccine based on killed virus and also the Sabin vaccine based on the attenuated polio virus.
Sanofi Pasteur was sold by University of Toronto to the Canada Development Corporation in 1972 and acquired by Pasteur Mérieux Serums et Vaccins, a subsidiary of Rhône Poulenc of France, in 1989. The Canadian operations changed its name from Pasteur Mérieux Connaught to Aventis Pasteur Limited in 1999. The parent company, Aventis, was acquired by Sanofi-Synthelabo, forming Sanofi-aventis.
Sanofi Pasteur produced the A H1N1 swiine flu vaccine in 2009.
Sanofi will partner with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 outbreak. Sanofi plans to use their recombinant DNA platform for the task expects the vaccine to need about one year to 18 months until it is ready for testing. The company previously developed vaccines for SARS, caused by a different strain of coronavirus. The platform Sanofi will use for the COVID-19 vaccine produces a genetic code for proteins of a virus that can serve as antigens. These are recombined with a non-dangerous virus that will produce large quantities of antigen. The antigens are separated and collected form infected cells and purified.
Translate Bio began a collaboration and exclusive licensing agreement with Sanofi Pasteur in 2018 to develop mRNA vaccines for up to five infectious disease pathogens.Translate Bio is producing mRNA constructs and will use its RNA platform to discover, design and manufacture SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates to treat COVID-19. The company will partner with Sanofi Pasteur who will provide expertise and support to further advance vaccine candidates.
Sanofi and Regeneron are conducting clinical trials for their IL-6 inhibitor antibody called Kevzara (sarilumab), a drug already used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, for treatment of severe cases of COVID-19. The treatment has the potential to calm an overactive immune response.
