Sanofi details €2B plan to make France an mRNA leader

French drugmaker Sanofi (Nasdaq:SNY) said it would spend €935 million (about $1.1 billion) between 2022 and 2026 to produce mRNA-based vaccines.

That funding is part of a larger €2 billion (about $2.4 billion) initiative to accelerate its mRNA development capability, Sanofi explained on its French-language website.

The company intends to use the funds to ramp up its lipid nanoparticle production capability and identify six candidate mRNA vaccines.

To commemorate the investment, French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson arrived at the company’s planned Evolutive Vaccines Facility plant in Neuville, France, on March 7.

The Neuville site will ultimately house equipment for multiple vaccine and biological platforms.

To date, Sanofi has been left on the sidelines as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), BioNTech (Nasdaq:BNTX) and Moderna (Nasdaq:MRNA) have raked in billions of dollars of mRNA-based vaccine sales.

Last year, Pfizer raked in $36.8 billion in COVID-19 vaccine sales alone, while Moderna sold $17.7 billion worth of its COVID-19 vaccine.

By contrast, Sanofi’s overall revenue for 2021 was $44.6 billion.

To ramp up its mRNA vaccine capability, Sanofi also acquired Translate Bio in 2021 for $3.2 billion.