Sanofi says it will help produce 200M doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

April 26 (UPI) -- French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi announced Monday that it will manufacture as many as 200 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine starting in a few months.

The company said it will begin producing the doses at a facility in Ridgefield, N.J., in September.

With the move, Sanofi will produce doses of all three coronavirus vaccines approved for use in the United States -- from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.

Sanofi said earlier this year that it would provide support to BioNTech for 125 million doses of the Pfizer shot in the European Union and 12 million doses per month for Johnson & Johnson at a plant in France. The company is also developing two of its own vaccines -- one with GlaxoSmithkline and another with U.S. company Translate Bio.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been mobilizing on multiple fronts and we showed solidarity across the industry," Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in a statement.

"I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Biden administration, to facilitate this new partnership."

The United States has been averaging about 3 million doses per day. The number declined to 2.7 million on Sunday -- the lowest level since March 31 -- after a peak of 3.4 million.

The decline came after officials suspended the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to a few reports of blood clotting in recipients. Federal regulators lifted the pause on Friday but recommended that a warning about the rare clotting risk accompany the vaccine, which is manufactured by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen.

Moderna has said it plans to deliver 300 million doses of its vaccine by August.