French pharmaceutical company Sanofi S.A. is laying off 15 workers and discontinuing its COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing at its Framingham facility.
“In order to optimize its manufacturing footprint, Sanofi has discontinued its Covid 19 vaccine manufacturing activities in Framingham,” Sanofi spokesperson Evan Berland told the Worcester Business Journal in an email. “We sought to employ as many of the impacted employees as possible in current vacant positions within Sanofi. However, when we do implement changes, there are times that our people are affected. In these events, we provide multiple avenues of support through all transitions.”
Of the 100 people working on the Framingham manufacturing site, 15 were affected by the decision to stop manufacturing its COVID-19 vaccine, said Berland.
In 2020, Sanofi started building out its ability to manufacture a COVID vaccine in Framingham. The project was in partnership with GSK plc, a British pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Sanofi partnered with in April 2020 to begin exploring potential COVID vaccines.
In July 2020, the United Kingdom government signed a coronavirus vaccine deal with the companies for up to 60 million doses of an experimental treatment. In the same month, the U.S. government announced it would pay Sanofi and GSK up to $2.1 billion to develop and deliver 100 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine.
On Nov. 10, 2022, Sanofi and GSK announced the European Commission, which is the European Union’s executive governing body, approved their COVID vaccine VidPrevtyn Beta as a booster for the prevention of COVID-19 in adults 18 years of age and older.
However, the drugmaker announced plans to let go of all of its employees at two vaccine factories in India. According to Reuters, the plants made vaccines for hepatitis B, diphtheria, and tetanus. The factories also had packaging facilities for insulin.
