Since his appointment ten days ago at the head of a task force intended to accelerate the production of vaccines in Europe, Thierry Breton has multiplied.
After a visit to a subcontractor of AstraZeneca, in Seneffe (Belgium) on February 10, he was in this weekend in Visp (Switzerland), in the Lonza plant which produces the Moderna vaccine.
“I am in contact several times a day with the heads of the laboratories, who are confined to their respective countries.
I have the opportunity to go into the field, while respecting the health criteria, ”he emphasizes.
In this busy schedule, the European commissioner in charge of industrial policy, former boss of France Telecom and Minister of the Economy, found more than an hour to discuss the imperative increase in production tools in order to keep a tight and still uncertain schedule.
12% of the population of the United States has already received at least one dose of the vaccine, 23% of that of the United Kingdom, and less than 4% of that of the European Union.
Is it a failure?
THIERRY BRETON.
To fully understand the situation, we must talk about the number of doses delivered.
178 million have been produced worldwide.
53 million were delivered to the United States, 41 million to China and 33 million to Europe.
China and the United States started a little before us, because they issued the authorizations very quickly.
Due to our very strict health safety requirements, we started a little later, at the end of December.
From these dates, we find more or less the same kinetics.
How do you explain the gap between the number of doses ordered by Europe and that of doses received?
We have ordered 2.6 billion doses, which significantly exceeds the 456 million inhabitants in Europe.
But we are facing an unprecedented situation.
Usually, it takes five to ten years to find vaccines that work.
This time, humanity took ten months!
Once we have them, we have to mass produce them.
That takes time !
The problem is no longer having new vaccines, it is producing them.
And this fight in which we are engaged, we are going to win it, I am convinced of it.
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Are further delivery delays to be expected in the next three months, when the goal is to vaccinate all Europeans who want it by the end of the summer?
Laboratories must stick to the schedule to which they have committed.
My priority is to give them all the means to achieve this.
I am already seeing progress.
The AstraZeneca plant where I visited succeeded, for example, in increasing the number of vaccines produced per tank by 40 to 50%.
I am confident that we will catch up.
What is the state of the industrial fabric in Europe in terms of vaccine production?
Among the best in the world!
Sixteen plants make up the vaccine.
Four others do it by integrating the “fill and finish”, the assembly and the filling of the bottles.
Finally, twenty-one more deal only with this last phase.
Manufacturers have created production lines for messenger RNA and adenovirus vaccines that had never been produced before.
Usually it takes about two years.
There, we will achieve it in five or six months.
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Tomorrow, how many doses will be produced on European soil?
By the end of the year, we want to have the capacity to produce 2 or 3 billion doses per year, to achieve the feat of going from a few tens of millions of vaccines to a few billion!
We owe it to ourselves to be autonomous to vaccinate our fellow citizens but also for the inhabitants of other countries on the planet, particularly in Africa.
Will the vaccines produced in France be intended for the French market?
No single country has all the necessary infrastructure to manufacture the vaccine.
The right scale is the continent.
The European Union has set the rules: doses are distributed in proportion to our populations.
There is no trade war here.
Are already authorized vaccines effective against variants?
The English variant appears to be well covered by existing vaccines.
Studies are underway for South African and Brazilian.
The laboratories are already working on evolutions to set up an additional dose, in order to maintain and increase immunity.
In six weeks to two months, they can correct the RNA and encapsulate it, without changing the original lipid formula.
The European Commission has announced a € 225 million plan to stem the spread of variants ...
We have organized ourselves to follow the mutations of the virus in a structured way.
The Hera incubator first includes a research component, then sequencing - it will be mandatory to sequence at least 5% of positive cases in each country to have a very precise vision of the genetic evolution of the virus.
We will also create a clinical trial network, whose data will be shared in real time.
And ensure that the industrial tool can meet demand for this crisis and also in the event of a new pandemic.
We will keep our production tool in good condition so that it is operational as soon as we need it.
Are laboratory owners ready to be transparent about contracts and to give access to their patents?
Business secrecy exists, but we have asked that MEPs be able to have access to the content of contracts.
As for patents, that would not change anything immediately because we are already using all the industrial bases that exist, including in India or China.
If we give access to a patent, it will take four or five years to open a plant.
On the other hand, once the pandemic has been brought under control, this file will have to be opened, calmly and with determination.
I am fighting one fight at a time.
