France's Sanofi to help Moderna manufacture COVID-19 shots

PARIS (Reuters) - Sanofi will fill and pack millions of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines from September in an effort to help meet the demand for the U.S. drugmaker's shots, the French company said on Monday.

Sanofi said it would help supply up to 200 million doses of Moderna's vaccine at its Ridgefield facility in New Jersey. Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed.

The deal marks Sanofi's third such agreement this year. In January, Sanofi pledged to help supply over 125 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech from this summer.

A month later, it said it would fill and finish vials of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine at a rate of approximately 12 million doses per month.

Sanofi said it was still working on developing two COVID-19 vaccines, one in partnership with Britain's GlaxoSmithkline for which it has started new clinical trials after disappointing early-stage results last year, and another with U.S. company Translate Bio.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Louise Heavens)