France will be able to continue its vaccination campaign with a third product: that of the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford.
The serum was authorized on Tuesday by the High Authority for Health, which announced it during a press point.
However, it is not recommended for people over 65.
It therefore does not follow the decision taken on Friday by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which recommended its use for all age groups from 18 years old, including those over 65, while in several countries, such as Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland or Sweden, the health authorities have expressed varying degrees of reservations about its effectiveness for the elderly.
Significant delivery delays
This new vaccine is hopeful in France, where it is estimated that it will amplify a struggling vaccination campaign.
After nursing homes and vaccination centers, the government plans to open a third vaccination circuit via community pharmacies: unlike its predecessors already on the market, AstraZeneca's vaccine is much easier to keep, because it does not need to be stored at very low temperature.
But the significant delivery delays announced by the pharmaceutical group angered Europe, which on Monday evoked a "real problem": the product "was going to be the mass vaccine for the first quarter" 2021 for the Twenty-Seven ... following "yield reductions" in a European plant, the group has indeed announced that only a quarter of the 120 million doses promised for the period could be delivered.