The executive will apply the recommendations of the High Authority for Health (HAS).
During a press briefing on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health announced that it wanted to follow the advice of the HAS, by reserving vaccination by Janssen for certain very specific cases.
Read alsoCovid-19: is Janssen's single-dose vaccine less effective than the others?
In an opinion published on Monday, the HAS pointed out that vaccination with Janssen led to "
a slight increase in the risk of myocardial infarction in the two weeks following
" the injection in adults under 75 years of age.
This temporary conclusion, supported by “
pharmacoepidemiology data from the EPI-PHARE report of January 18, 2022
”, must however be confirmed at European level, via the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The HAS therefore advised to “
postpone vaccination with the Janssen vaccine
”, pending pooling of European information on this subject.
Only certain special cases - the
people at risk of a severe form of the disease who present a contraindication to the administration of a vaccine with RNA
"messenger" - should continue to receive Janssen in the meantime, suggested the HAS.
The ministry therefore intends to follow this advice, avoiding the use of this vaccine for a few weeks, except in certain very specific cases, recommended by the HAS.
"
An urgent DGS - a message sent directly to professionals, editor's note - should be sent by the ministry today or in the following days
" to health professionals to inform them, it was indicated, specifying that this suspension would be “
temporary, pending European pharmacovigilance work
”.
A meeting is due to take place in early March as part of the EMA's Prac (Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee): this file will be discussed there, it was specified.
The HAS wants to be reassuring
“
There is a weak signal, but it is a signal all the same, so this leads to an attitude of caution
”, noted Alain Fischer, during the press briefing.
“
Things need to be clarified on a European scale in the coming weeks
,” added the president of the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council (COSV).
For its part, the HAS minimized the risks: "
to date, the pharmacovigilance data available worldwide [...] are reassuring and no signal related to the risk of myocardial infarction has been identified at the level European or at the level of the United States
, ”she noted in her opinion on Monday.
In all cases, "
preference should be given to mRNA vaccines
", reminded the Ministry of Health, repeating, in this respect, the declarations of the HAS: "
preference should be given to the use of mRNA vaccines in the context of of the primary vaccination as well as for the administration of the booster dose when possible
", she declared the day before.
Janssen remains little used in France, with just over a million doses administered since April 2021, including very few after September.
Public Health France has only counted around ten doses of this vaccine administered every day for several months.
The decision to suspend its use should therefore only moderately influence the pace of the vaccination campaign.
