Soon a first French anti-Covid vaccine on the market?
The serum developed by the Valneva laboratory, based in Saint-Herblain, near Nantes, should be delivered to Europe, including France, "
probably in May
", said Thursday evening its general manager Franck Grimaud on Franceinfo.
"
We hope to be able to have final registration from the European Medicines Agency at the end of April
", he said, for "
first deliveries to Member States a few weeks later
".
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The Franco-Austrian biotech plans to participate in both the primary and booster vaccination campaigns.
“
We immediately hope to participate in the first vaccination of unvaccinated people, there are still 3 to 4 million in France, around ten million in Germany for example
”, indicated Franck Grimaud.
"
The issue immediately behind it is the reminders, which will probably become annual, like the flu
," he said.
Unlike the two main vaccines used in France, those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, Valneva's product does not use messenger RNA technology but the more traditional inactivated virus technology.
Such an effective technique, according to Franck Grimaud.
“
At the level of the antibodies that we generate, we are at the level of messenger RNA vaccines.
Used for several decades in the pharmaceutical sector, it could also convince recalcitrants to messenger RNA and viral vector technology, also recent, used by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
“Between 15 and 22 euros” the dose
Franck Grimaud also confirmed that he had signed an agreement with the European Commission for the supply of “
60 million doses
” to around twenty EU Member States, “
including 24 million firm doses ordered this year
”.
Valneva has not communicated on the price of its vaccine.
On Franceinfo, the director general of biotech only took over the range mentioned in the agreement with Brussels, that is “
between 15 and 22 euros
” per dose.
For comparison, Pfizer charges 19.50 euros per dose, and Moderna 21.50 euros.
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The Kingdom of Bahrain has also ordered one million doses of the vaccine from the Franco-Austrian laboratory.
“
Other negotiations are underway in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia, in Latin America.
We hope to sign other agreements by the end of the year
, "said the boss of the company to the 800 employees, adding that his vaccine was also"
in the process of being registered in the United Kingdom
".
London had however terminated last September a contract for 100 million doses.
However, the British State has “
very significantly supported
” the development of the Valneva vaccine, insisted Franck Grimaud, providing the laboratory with grants to carry out its clinical trials and then to build a factory in Scotland, “
which will have the capacity to produce 100 million doses, with the first doses coming out in the second half
”.
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