[News] Covid-19 vaccine: France deems "unacceptable" that Sanofi should serve the United States first

[ROVEN]

The Secretary of State for Economy ruled Thursday morning "unacceptable" that the Sanofi laboratory serve the United States first in the event of a discovery of a vaccine against the new coronavirus.

 

 

Strong reactions after Sanofi's announcement. It would be "unacceptable" for the pharmaceutical group Sanofi to serve the United States as a priority if it finds a vaccine against Covid-19 as claimed by its boss on Wednesday, the Secretary of State said on Thursday. Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

"For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access from such and such a country under a pretext that would be a pecuniary pretext," declared the secretary of state on Sud Radio.

 

The group's chief executive, Paul Hudson, said on Wednesday that Sanofi would serve the United States "first" if it found a vaccine because the country "shares the risk" of research in the framework of a partnership with the Autorité. for advanced research and development in the biomedical field (Barda).

The US government "has the right to the biggest pre-orders," he told Bloomberg, because "they have invested to try to protect their people." An advance that will be a few days or weeks on the rest of the world, he said.

"Sanofi has a diversified and international industrial base. We have production capacities in the United States, in Europe, notably in France and elsewhere in the world. Production on American soil will be mainly dedicated to the United States and the rest of our production capacity will be allocated to Europe, France and the rest of the world, "Sanofi said in an evening statement.

"We have always made a commitment that in these unprecedented circumstances, our vaccine will be accessible to all," added the laboratory.

>> Read also: "The Covid-19 pushes France to relocate its pharmaceutical industry"

Agnès Pannier-Runacher indicated having "immediately contacted" the French pharmaceutical group after the words of its managing director. "The boss of Sanofi France confirmed to me that the vaccine would be accessible to all countries and obviously (...) to the French, especially since it has production capacities in France", she said. indicated.

Sanofi puts the EU up to its responsibilities

The pharmaceutical giant also returned the ball to the European Union on Thursday morning. "The Americans are effective at this time. The EU must also be effective in helping us make this vaccine available very quickly," Sanofi France President Olivier Bogillot said on the BFMTV channel.

However, "the American government mobilized itself very early on financially", he stressed, stressing that the United States had already planned to pay "several hundred million euros".

In contrast, "we are in talks with the European authorities (...) and certain EU states such as France and Germany to speed things up," he continued, noting that he was also to facilitate regulatory procedures.

Other politicians have expressed dismay on social media. The president of the Hauts de France region, former member of the Les Républicains party and former Minister of Health, Xavier Bertrand, challenged Emmanuel Macron on Twitter, deeming "unthinkable that a company which has its headquarters in France and which benefits from research tax credits deliver a vaccine to the United States before we do. "

"Sanofi wants to favor the US market while its research is largely funded by the Research Tax Credit", also noted the boss of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, on Twitter.

Collaborations with GSK and Translate Bio

 

Regarding the research itself, Olivier Bogillot confirmed that the objective remained the development of a usable vaccine within 18 to 24 months, stressing that such a calendar is extremely accelerated compared to normal, which revolves around 'ten years.

Sanofi, one of the world's leading vaccine specialists, launched the race against the new coronavirus in mid-February, with the announcement of a cooperation agreement with the Authority for Advanced Research and Development in the biomedical field (Barda), which depends on the United States Department of Health.

Sanofi will use its recombinant DNA technology to "speed up the development of a potential Covid-19 vaccine," he said. To this end, the group has teamed up with the British GSK, a collaboration in which the two laboratories hope to obtain a result by 2021.

In addition, the French laboratory is also collaborating with Translate Bio, an American biotech, which develops drugs based on messenger RNA, with the aim of developing another type of vaccine against Covid-19. Around the world, more than 100 vaccine projects are currently under study, with a dozen clinical trials already 

Edited May 15, 2020 by #PREDATOR
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