Vaccine against Covid-19: when will a French serum be available?

Visiting this Friday morning in a factory of the Delpharm group in Eure-et-Loir, Emmanuel Macron again conceded it.

France has missed the boat in the design of a vaccine, while at the same time "the American program has skipped all stages" for its messenger RNA vaccine.

"On this we must fully recognize, this turn, we took it less quickly," said the Head of State.

Not enough, however, to give in to pessimism.

Pasteur Sanofi researchers continue to work on a vaccine that is more stable and easier to keep than the first version on which they had initially bet, before throwing in the towel.

The product, based on the technique of recombinant proteins and developed with the British laboratory GSK, has entered the second phase of clinical trials.

He could be available by the end of the year and have his revenge, if there is a need to organize recurrent vaccination campaigns.

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Another company, Valneva, based in Saint-Herblain near Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), is also in the running.

The first results of phases 1 and 2 of the clinical trials show a 90% efficacy of the immunogenic effect of its vaccine, the first and the only one in development in Europe based on the inactivated virus technique.

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While waiting for the arrival of a blue-white-red serum, some French laboratories are engaging their manufacturing line in the vialing of vaccines already on the market.

Delpharm, for example, bottles that of Pfizer / BioNTech at its site in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, where Emmanuel Macron visited, Recipharm, in Indre-et-Loire, that of Moderna, and Sanofi, near Lyon, will take charge of Janssen's from this summer.

Russian vaccine already used in Hungary

The reinforcement of new products is also on the program in order to further accelerate the pace of the vaccination campaign.

After the current arrival of the Janssen vaccine, that of the German CureVac should be added, normally in July, to the available arsenal.

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Other products, which have not yet been negotiated or approved by the EU authorities, are at the gates of Europe.

Authorities in Bavaria, Germany, have announced the signing of a preliminary contract for the purchase of 2.5 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. It can only be injected in the event of a green light from the European Human Resources Agency. drugs.

Hungary has already ignored this authorization to vaccinate its citizens with Sputnik, while Austria and Slovakia are negotiating for their part with Russia to obtain it.