France now produces vaccines on its soil.
The first anti-Covid-19 serums were bottled on Wednesday, even if the doses will not be intended only for the French, confirmed the subcontractor Delpharm in charge of the operation.
"It started this morning," said the group that bottles Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines in Eure-et-Loir.
An event hailed by President Emmanuel Macron.
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Production of vaccines against Covid-19: France is on track
"250 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines produced in France in 2021: this is our goal", welcomed the President of the Republic.
“It begins in concrete terms today with the first BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines produced at the Delpharm site in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre: congratulations to all the teams!
“, He greeted again.
250 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines produced in France in 2021: this is our goal.
It begins today with the first BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines produced on the Delpharm site in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre: bravo to all the teams!
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 7, 2021
The vaccines in question were delivered in bulk to Delpharm on Tuesday from BioNTech's plant in Marburg, Germany, where they are manufactured.
Delpharm is responsible for putting them in the vials which will ultimately be distributed to the vaccinators.
After Pfizer, Moderna
Even if they leave the French factory today, they will not be immediately injected, because it will take almost a month to approve them.
Thereafter, they will not be specifically dedicated to the French.
Delpharm specified that the proportion should correspond to the quota of anti-Covid vaccines planned by the European Union for France on all of its orders, or around 15%.
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France participates in vaccine production on its soil
In a few days, a competitor of Delpharm will begin to bottle Moderna vaccines, in Indre-et-Loire.
At the end of May, the Fareva company will take care of the CureVac vaccine - not yet approved in the EU - in the Eure and in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Finally, the giant Sanofi will lend a hand from this summer to its competitor Johnson & Johnson by bottling its vaccine, near Lyon.
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Already approved in the EU but subject to restrictions for certain age groups, the AstraZeneca vaccine is not currently supposed to be bottled in France.