At the entrance to the CordenPharma factory in Chenôve, in the suburbs of Dijon (Côte-d'Or), a sort of large closed pot stands on a plinth.
A modern art sculpture, made by a local artist?
“Not at all, it is one of our very first reactors, smiles Yves Michon, the CEO.
At the time, it was barely a few dozen liters.
Since then, they have changed a lot, and some here contain up to 4000 liters.
"
READ ALSO>
Thierry Breton: "France will embark on a massive production of vaccines this week"
The reactor is the container, heated or cooled, in which the chemical reactions take place.
This site of the German pharmaceutical subcontractor now has about fifteen.
Exceptionally, he opened his doors to us this Easter Sunday to reveal some manufacturing secrets, but not too many.
In these times of pandemic, collaborations between laboratories or subcontractors have certainly multiplied.
But industrial secrecy still prevails.
Maximum reactivity
Because, for nine months, part of CordenPharma's reactors have been used for the manufacture of one of the essential components of messenger RNA vaccines.
“Our parent company in Switzerland had been producing this lipid-based component in small quantities for five years,” explains Mathilde Point, project manager.
This production was intended for research carried out by Moderna.
When the pandemic broke out, the American laboratory managed to develop an effective vaccine against Covid-19 very quickly.
"
REPORTAGE.
Component of the Moderna vaccine made in France: "Without him, no vaccine!"
With the consequence of exploding lipid requirements.
Since Swiss production was no longer sufficient, it was quickly decided that the larger Chenôve site would also be mobilized, alongside that of Boulder, Colorado (United States).
“We signed the call for tenders in April, remembers Yves Michon.
The tests took place until June, in order to obtain, in particular, the validation by the American authorities.
And in July, production could begin.
Usually it takes two to three times as long.
A responsiveness that impresses the European Commissioner in charge of Industry and the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who came to visit the factory this Sunday.
"In the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, some manufacturers, including you, have been able to adapt at an extraordinary speed, he told employees.
When we see the complexity of the manufacturing processes, we realize the work to change certain production lines.
"
Other French factories in the race
The messenger RNA technology, used to produce the Moderna vaccine, therefore, but also the Pfizer-BioNTech, is indeed brand new.
Even if some laboratories have been working on it for ten years.
“This involves using very small molecules of lipids,” explains Mathilde Point.
These will encapsulate the RNA and allow it to travel around the human body so that it can become immunized.
It is a revolutionary process, which will help in the manufacture of vaccines, as here against Covid-19, but also in the fight against cancer.
The production of these lipids will therefore be decisive.
In the meantime, the bags of these precious particles are shipped at -20 ° C to CordenPharma's US site in Boulder, where they will be added to other components, before being then redirected to Moderna's production plants. .
In its fight against the pandemic, the European Union, and with it France, is targeting collective immunity, i.e. at least 70% of its adult population, by mid-July.
To do this, it intends to deliver some 360 million doses to the 27 member states in the second quarter.
Of which 54 million for France.
“To achieve such yields, we absolutely need to secure some of our supplies,” says Thierry Breton.
By avoiding any risk of bottleneck as much as possible.
"For the European Commissioner, one of the solutions is to" localize "the production of some of the 400 components that go into the manufacture of a vaccine.
Like Chenôve then.
Thierry Breton, European Commissioner, alongside Yves Michon, President of CordenPharma.
LP / Olivier Arandel
Illustration of the rise of the Hexagon, other sites are preparing to launch their own production very soon.
Thus, Delpharm which, from April 7, will bottle the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at its site in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre (Eure-et-Loir).
Recipharm should start the Moderna project in Monts, Indre-et-Loire, by the end of the month.
Ditto for the Janssen on the Sanofi site in Marcy-l'Etoile, near Lyon, from September.
The Curevac, if it obtains its marketing authorization (AMM) in May as planned, will also be bottled in France by Fareva near Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques).
Newsletter It pays me
The newsletter that improves your purchasing power
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
By then, the CordenPharma site in Chenôve will have reached its cruising speed.
To the point that it could supply its lipid molecules to laboratories other than Moderna, in particular to the competitor Pfizer-BioNTech.
In total, more than 250 million doses, all vaccines combined, could thus be produced in France in 2021.