Sanofi and GSK plan to ask regulators to authorize their COVID-19 vaccine

Drugmakers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced Wednesday they are planning to ask regulators to authorize their new COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Drugmakers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced Wednesday they are planning to ask regulators to authorize their new COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The companies said data shows the shot works either as a primary vaccine, with 100% effectiveness against severe disease and hospitalization, or as a booster shot to raise antibody levels.

Although they are submitting a request for authorization more than a year after Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson were approved in the U.S., Sanofi and GSK are hoping to differentiate their vaccine because it is based on a more conventional protein-based vaccine technology.

Known as a recombinant protein vaccine, it uses the spike protein -- which COVID uses to enter and infect cells -- to help the body recognize the virus so it can fight it off if a person becomes infected.