Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said Oct. 28 that they will provide 200 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to the World Health Organization's Covax initiative if the vaccine receives regulatory approval.
The Covax initiative seeks to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are distributed equitably around the world and aims to deliver 2 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021, according to CNBC. More than 180 countries have joined the initiative, but the U.S. has not.
The initiative is focused on prioritizing vaccination for the most high-risk people in every country, and the WHO has said it plans for all countries to receive enough doses of a vaccine to vaccinate 20 percent of their population before any country receives more doses, CNBC reported.
Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said they expect results from their phase 2 trial of their experimental COVID-19 vaccine by early December and will launch a phase 3 trial if data is positive. The drugmakers said they plan to seek regulatory approval in the first half of 2021 if data from all trials is positive.
Read Sanofi's full news release here.