Coronavirus vaccine: France government finds “unacceptable” for Sanofi to first serve the United States

On Wednesday, the pharmaceutical group’s chief executive said Sanofi would “serve the United States first” if it found a vaccine, as the country “shares the risk” of research.

The government’s reaction was quick. It would be “unacceptable” for the French pharmaceutical group Sanofi to give priority to serving the United States if it finds a vaccine against Coronavirus, as his boss said on Wednesday, the Secretary of State reacted on Thursday 14 May. The economy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, at the microphone of Radio:

“For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access from such and such a country under a pretext that would be a pecuniary pretext.

Pannier-Runacher said she “immediately contacted” the French pharmaceutical group after the words of its managing director. “The boss of Sanofi France confirmed to me that the vaccine would be accessible to all countries and obviously (…) to the French, especially since it has production capacities in France,” she explained.

Faced with the scale of the controversy, the French official of the pharmaceutical giant replied in the morning that Sanofi would not give priority to the United States a possible vaccine against Coronavirus if the European Union is also shown ” efficient ”to finance its development:

“ The Americans are efficient at this time. The EU needs to be as effective in helping us make this vaccine available very quickly. “

A lead of “a few days or a few weeks” On Wednesday, the group’s general manager, Paul Hudson, said that Sanofi would “serve” the United States first if he found a vaccine, because this country “shares the risk” of research in the framework of a partnership with the Authority for advanced research and development in the biomedical field (Barda). The US government “has the right to the biggest preorders” because the United States “has invested to try to protect its people,” he said in an interview with the Bloomberg news agency. He said the advance could be a few days or a few weeks.

In the evening, the group said in a statement that “production on American soil will be [it] mainly dedicated to the United States and the rest of [its] production capacity will be [it] allocated to Europe, to France and the rest of the world “, committing however that its possible vaccine” be accessible to all “.

A “scandalous decision”

“This decision is scandalous! The government must act with the utmost firmness to prevent this decision, “reacted on Wednesday morning the Socialist Party in a statement, adding:

” The commitment of the French to develop a champion in the health sector cannot lead to the see prefer other markets to launch its vaccines. […] Because health is a common good to be removed from the market, no French company should be able to play against our own health sovereignty without exposing itself to nationalization.

Ségolène Royal, former minister of ecology, said for her part: “It is obvious that health must be excluded from the rules of the financial market, it is not a good like any other.”