After those of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which made it possible to carry out nearly 1.5 million injections in France, three new vaccines competing in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic should soon be available.
That of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca should be the next to be able to be administered in France.
The European Medicines Agency authorized its marketing in the European Union on January 29 and the French High Authority for Health (HAS) is due to give its opinion on Tuesday.
The first doses could therefore be available from next week, but the doubts weighing on its effectiveness on the over 65s are reshuffling the cards.
Pharmacists could soon vaccinate
The vaccine now has a good chance of being offered to a much younger population than that targeted today.
The first 400,000 doses, delivered from February 7, will be reserved for caregivers under the age of 50.
That's not all: the government has submitted to the HAS the idea of authorizing pharmacists to prescribe it but also to administer it directly in their pharmacies.
"This makes it possible to include in the vaccination circuit health professionals in town, pharmacists but also general practitioners and nurses who were able, in less than two months this winter, to vaccinate more than 10 million people against winter flu, welcomes Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of community pharmacists.
700,000 new doses delivered in mid-February will be stored in pharmacies and available to town doctors who will be able to vaccinate, according to priority criteria according to pathologies or age groups to be defined by the authorities.
I think that then, in March, it will be possible to receive an injection directly in a pharmacy.
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The vaccine from the American laboratory Janssen, a subsidiary of the Johnson & Johnson group, will also give a boost to the vaccination campaign.
It has just successfully passed its phase 3 clinical trials, the last step before going through that of marketing authorization.
It works with the same technology as the AstraZeneca.
Its main advantage is that it only requires a single dose.
Its declared effectiveness is 66% from the 28th day following the injection.
This is much less than its competitors Pfizer and Moderna (95%), but well above the 52% required by the World Health Organization (WHO).
How effective against variants?
Third solution soon available in France, the product manufactured by the start-up Novavax.
It has completed its main testing phases.
The option chosen by this laboratory is that of the recombinant protein, the same as that used by the Sanofi group, which finally threw in the towel.
It is 89% effective, on average, after two injections.
A defect all the same, which could again modify the French vaccine strategy: it seems much less effective in protecting against the South African variant of the virus, with a result lowered to only 60% against this mutant.
However, the laboratory has announced that it is working without delay to develop a new vaccine capable of combating this clone.