US Teams Up With French Drugmaker on COVID-19 Vaccine

This scanning electron microscope image shows the virus that causes COVID-19 isolated from a patient in the United States, emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. NIAID-RML/CC BY 2.0

The Trump administration is teaming up with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi in a race to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus disease COVID-19.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Tuesday it would provide “expertise and reallocated funds” to support the vaccine’s development. Sanofi will partner up with the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority—known as BARDA—to develop a treatment using its recombinant DNA platform.