Vaccine research that succeeds when others get bogged down, production chains that seize up while others ramp up.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Minister for Industry, acknowledges: “Every day, we record good or bad news on vaccines, which supposes a rebound.
I can't remember a single day without a conference call or emergency written exchanges since the summer.
“Last twist, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca laboratories - subject to its vaccine being approved by Europe on January 29 - which announce a drop in their delivery.
How is the schedule of 15 million French people vaccinated in June still tenable?
AGNES PANNIER-RUNACHER.
You do not integrate the fact that there was also good news!
Pfizer has previously announced how it is compensating for its late deliveries last week as deliveries from this week are expected to be slightly higher than expected.
Pfizer also told us that it was able to produce more from the second quarter.
On the Moderna side, the delivery dates are maintained.
By the end of June, between Pfizer and Moderna alone, we will be able to meet our target of 15 million people vaccinated.
Pfizer and AstraZeneca have expressed difficulties in scaling up capacity, but I would like to remind you that their current production is in itself an industrial achievement.
We cannot, as we did for the manufacture of masks, hydroalcoholic gel and even respirators, ask companies in another sector to produce vaccines.
We are talking about vaccines that are injected into the human body!
The requirements and safety levels of pharmaceutical productions are far too high to improvise as a manufacturer.
Italy intends to attack Pfizer for its delays.
Could France do the same?
The legal ground is fragile.
The contracts have been signed between the European Commission and the laboratories.
Then, the delivery targets are quarterly and the number of doses delivered is in accordance with the contract.
On the other hand, France will closely monitor the rise in industrial capacity.
What I remember is that we will participate in the manufacture of four of the first six safe vaccines.
Why?
Because from the month of June with Olivier Véran we launched a call for projects to finance extensions of production lines.
I prefer to be on the side of the search for solutions rather than on that of polemics.
You also asked Sanofi to help.
Will the French pharmaceutical giant respond favorably?
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When Sanofi published its results in December, which collectively disappointed us (
Editor's note: the vaccine is not ready)
, I asked them two questions.
Is there a way to get your vaccine to market faster by reworking clinical trials - including mobilizing our health authorities?
Does this event free up industrial capacities that can be made available to other laboratories?
There are technological hurdles, but Sanofi is playing along!
Two laboratories have expressed an interest in gaining access to Sanofi's capacities, with on the one hand a vaccine that has been put on the market, and on the other a vaccine that is in the making.
We hope for an announcement in the coming days and Sanofi will say what type of vaccine it is able to accommodate on their production lines.
When will production start?
This is what we are determining.
"We will be vigilant that Sanofi's investment commitments are kept," explains Pannier-Runacher./LP/FD
Sanofi has announced the elimination of 400 research positions.
Isn't it paradoxical when the government wants to strengthen the pharmaceutical independence of France?
We will be very vigilant on two points.
First, that these job cuts are only voluntary and unconstrained departures.
Then, that Sanofi's commitments in terms of investments are kept: in research and development in France to the tune of two billion euros per year, and in industrial investments with in particular the construction of a production site for scalable vaccine in Marcy-l'Etoile (Rhône) for an investment of more than 600 million euros and the creation of 200 jobs.
And finally that vaccines are indeed one of the three areas of excellence on which Sanofi is positioned with cancer and gene therapies.
How do you prepare for the arrival of a variant of the virus?
BioNTech and Pfizer announced that their vaccine was effective against the English variant.
Then, we work with them in particular to determine the time required to develop a vaccine against a resistant variant.
Discussions are already underway to include it in the additional order brackets.
Preliminary studies show that it would take about six weeks to find a solution in the laboratory against a resistant variant.
On the other hand, the duration of industrialization is a point on which we are still working.
Are some countries trying to appropriate the doses purchased by other states?
We must not be naive.
If the President of the Republic pushed four countries - France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy - to make a first joint reservation of vaccines, it is because we felt that some wanted to go alone.
Which ?
I will not go into details.
On a few occasions, some may have had the temptation to play the stowaways to recover more doses.
You should know that some countries do not take their optional doses or the entire quota reserved for their population.
Some wanted to recover this surplus.
We strongly demanded a fair and transparent distribution.
France's position has always been that of European solidarity.
The European Council last Thursday confirmed this approach.
When a laboratory contacts us directly, we systematically refer to the Union level.
For us, this solidarity is the condition for success.