Antiviral pill, variants, influenza vaccine, new site in France ... David Lepoittevin, Pfizer-France's “Mr. Vaccine”, presents the latest advances from the American laboratory against Covid-19.
Since Wednesday and for the first time, Pfizer vaccines have been packaged on French soil by the company Delpharm.
Could other sites see the light of day?
DAVID LEPOITTEVIN.
Yes, nothing is closed.
We are examining all the solutions to speed up the production of doses and deliveries as much as possible.
At the beginning, we made colossal investments to increase the production rate in our factory in Puurs, Belgium, which mainly supplies Europe.
It runs around the clock and the manufacturing time has been reduced from 110 to 60 days.
Before the pandemic, Pfizer produced 200 million doses of vaccine each year, today there are more than 2 billion and 17,000 of our 78,000 employees are mobilized.
To achieve this industrial feat, we innovated and looked for new suppliers, 80 in total.
Our German partner BioNTech has thus entrusted the bottling stage to Delpharm, in its Eure-et-Loir plant, and to Sanofi, in Germany.
We are doing everything to go faster.
Why not manufacture them directly in France?
The active substance in the vaccine, mRNA, is produced at Pfizer and BioNTech factories in the United States and Germany.
In general, its manufacture is very complex and it takes two years to create a new line, ten years to open a factory.
A lab that starts from scratch is unable to release a vaccine the next month.
You can't do magic.
Delivery delays were mentioned for the month of May, which you denied.
What happened ?
It seems important to me to make a point.
It is not a delay, it is a question of interpretation of the schedule.
We deliver to France every Tuesday and the State records deliveries the previous day, Monday.
For the last week of May, the 31st being a Monday and June 1, a Tuesday, for the State, they are attached to May and June for Pfizer.
This is the explanation.
What I can tell you is that we have a signed contractual commitment that we respect.
Our goal was to deliver 27.7 million doses between April and June.
Not only will we be completely on schedule, but we will even deliver 29.5 million doses.
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How do you go beyond your objectives when other labs cannot meet their specifications?
We get there because we put in the means.
As soon as we started to think about vaccine avenues, we immediately anticipated the implementation of production.
It was a risky bet, because it could very well have failed and we would have invested at a loss.
He was assumed and it worked.
You have also made the daring bet of messenger RNA.
Why this choice ?
Since 2018, we had already been working on a flu vaccine project with this technology, which we found interesting.
When the health crisis arrived, we quickly made the choice to use and develop it against the Covid.
Is your initial project still relevant today?
Effectively.
Our goal within one to two years is to produce the first influenza vaccine based on messenger RNA.
Until then, there are still steps to be taken.
This crisis will at least have had the advantage of confirming that this technology opened up a lot of possibilities.
This innovative lead could be effective in treating certain cancers.
What do we know about its level of protection on variants?
Laboratory studies have shown that it is effective on the three main ones: English, Brazilian and South African, although it is a little less effective on this one.
But in real life, the latest results we have seen come as a huge surprise.
We tell you, an updated analysis of our phase 3 clinical trial in South Africa shows that our vaccine is 100% effective against this variant.
We continue to constantly monitor the arrival of new variants and we set up tests to verify the level of protection.
If at some point it was no longer sufficient, we would be able to reformulate the vaccine.
The flexibility of mRNA technology allows us to react quickly and adapt.
Are you currently working on another antidote?
Yes !
Our researchers are tireless.
We are in the process of developing two drugs against Covid.
These candidate antiviral treatments, one in oral form and the other administered intravenously, are still at a very early stage in their development.
The encouraging in vitro results of the oral form prompted us to quickly launch a clinical study in healthy adults to assess the dose and tolerance of this drug.
The first results could arrive soon.
The intravenous antiviral candidate is also the subject of a clinical trial in participants with Covid-19 and hospitalized.
Will your vaccine change?
We are currently evaluating the interest of a third dose, what is called a booster, to better fight, over time, against the variants.
This is a slightly different and more suitable formulation of the vaccine.
To find out if this is necessary, we are conducting a study in the United States where participants who had been included in the first phase of our clinical trial received this third dose, six to twelve months after the first two.
We will have the first intermediate results within a few months.
We anticipate.
A probable link has been established between rare blood clots and AstraZeneca serum.
Have you also noticed the appearance of rare events, not appearing on the leaflet?
Regarding thrombosis, there is no particular signal.
And we do not notice any unanticipated side effects, tolerance is good.
The most common are pain at the injection site, temporary headaches, fatigue.
To date, 200 million people around the world have received this vaccine.
Should we get immunized against Covid every year?
We don't know, but we ask ourselves the question.
It depends on the evolution of the pandemic, the way it is controlled, the emergence or not of new variants, the long-term effectiveness of the vaccine.
Only time will allow us to find out.
The Institut Pasteur estimates that 90% of adults in France must be vaccinated to achieve collective immunity.
What's your opinion ?
This figure should not be set by Pfizer but by the authorities.
The take-home message is that you have to get vaccinated.
It is not only an individual gesture but a collective one.
And that's the only way to get back to a more normal life.
