Does France still have a chance in the vaccine race?

• The statements of the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which announced that it would distribute a possible vaccine in priority in the United States in response to their investments, before back pedaling (in part), illustrates the mad race in which the laboratories of the world are launched whole against coronavirus.
• In France, few players are on the spot. For lack of resources, but also because French research is most often concentrated on treatments rather than on vaccines.
• If it turns out to be "simple", in the end, to find a vaccine against Covid-19, then "the others have taken the lead," warns Morgane Bomsel, CNRS researcher at the Cochin Institute.

The embers are still smoking, but the Sanofi fire is about to be brought under control. Here we pay a well-deserved tribute to the number "  good cop-bad cop  " improvised by the communicating oils of the French company to get out of the rut. On the one hand, the fine contortionist exercise succeeded by Serge Weinberg, predict it from the board of directors of Sanofi, who came to beat his face on the France 2 news on Thursday evening. The kind of man probably not used to being slapped on the fingers in public places, and yet. He cashes the successive charges of Anne-Sophie Lapix with the requisite modesty.

I just reminded Serge Weinberg who chairs @Sanofi, this big, deeply French company. He gave me all the necessary assurances regarding the distribution in France of a possible Sanofi vaccine.

In essence: "The vaccine, reserved for Americans? Damn no, what do you think? Our factories in Europe will be happy to give it to the whole world, and for a low price! " A little more, he himself offered us the gallows for Paul Hudson, his impudent general manager, responsible for the departure of the fire. And on the other, neither seen nor known, Olivier Bogillot, president of Sanofi France, who toured the media without changing a comma at the bottom of the case. In Le Parisien, for example  : “We asked for EU aid, but it's lagging behind. However, we need support of the same order as that provided by America to vaccinate the European situation ”.

"Private laboratories do not want to go alone"

A skillfully orchestrated coaster, in a way. "This episode is not very glorious for the image, but it is a revealing blunder, decrypts Nathalie Coutinet, researcher in health economics at Paris-XIII University and expert in the strategies of pharmaceutical companies. “Private actors are not going to go it alone. The vaccine race represents too great a financial risk, several billion without being sure of getting to the end. The Americans have paid an advance to Sanofi, so they expect to be served first. It's the rat race, like masks or hydroxycloroquine at first. Each state wants to show its people that it has answers, so everyone shows their muscles. ”

True to himself, Donald Trump does not bother with principles. He watered all the big labs to win the bet in the case of a hypothetical miracle vaccine. 30 million dollars for Sanofi, Almost 500 million for Moderna, a national player. The American president, decidedly shameless, had even tried to poach researchers from the German laboratory Curevac, a time announced as the most advanced in his experiments.

French research focused on treatments

In this merciless war, France, mother country of vaccination, truffle soup and Kylian Mbappé, seems to roar like an old zoo lion that no one listens to anymore. Of the 115 projects identified in early April by CEPI, the coalition for innovations in epidemic preparedness, a structure based in Norway, 46% of vaccine projects come from North America, 36% from Asia, and 18 % of Europe. How many French actors in there? Of them. Sanofi, therefore, and the Pasteur Institute. The latter, who has just announced the start of trials for its most promising program, based on a modified measles vaccine, is a bit like the tree that hides the forest. "Because Pasteur is the only one who has a little money!" Plague Morgane Bomsel, CNRS researcher at the Cochin Institute [budget € 378 million in 2018]. At the head of a laboratory of ten people, this immunology specialist herself started research that she shared as part of "Reacting", a multidisciplinary consortium bringing together teams and laboratories of excellence in order to coordinate research in front of the Covid, under the aegis of Inserm.

# SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus vaccine: "the first results of phase I are expected by the end of October. Phase II or phase II / III is scheduled for early December", Christiane Gerke (@institutpasteur). @RTLFrance https://t.co/6MSC0lSpcQ

“I am working on pathophysiology, the characterization of the immune response to the virus. This is the project I submitted. In theory, I can go as far as the vaccine, but if you want to get a little help, you should definitely not mention it. Today, we are paying for years of lack of investment in public research in France ”. The National Research Agency (ARN), the main tool of public research in France, had to scrape the funds to reach 14.5 million euros in budget thanks to an extension from the Ministry of Research. However, its “Ra-Covid” program only mentions projects capable of producing results quickly, within the next three to twelve months.

"Our leaders have zero scientific culture"

In a word, France prefers to focus on treatments rather than on the vaccine, for lack of resources. And the promises of Emmanuel Macron, who announced $ 5 billion for research in the next five years during a recent visit to the Institut Pasteur, have not transcended a community accustomed to short-term oaths. It is also funny to remember that a week before the country's closure, the researchers had decided to strike strike to mount their disapproval of the latest multi-year programming law proposed by the government.

Macron promises 5 billion euros over ten years for research. Too bad the needs of the sector are estimated at an additional 10.5 billion euros over seven years. https://t.co/e8eGXCxVMY

"Unfortunately, we are in a country where scientific research is not well considered," deplores epidemiologist Yves Charpak, former adviser to the WHO and director of international affairs at the Institut Pasteur. Because our leaders have zero scientific culture, because a doctorate in science has no value in a political career. The only thing that interests them is to have a result. There they are happy. But the how is something else ”. Annoying when one claims to recover a part of the lost sovereignty in the health field and the production of drugs.

A little thinning anyway? The fundraiser organized by the European Commission and the WHO, which has raised almost 7.5 billion euros in recent days, including 500 million promised by France. 4.4 billion should be spent on the development of a vaccine, which, perhaps, satisfy Sanofi or its competitors at the time of production of the future remedy. "Several candidates may provide an effective vaccine," explains Nathalie Coutinet. If this is the case, Europe remains very well positioned, with several production factories on its territory, even if France has lagged behind. ”

"If finding a vaccine is more complicated than expected, we will come back to the game"

Still shocked by the controversy Sanofi, "a French company which receives a certain number of public aid", Morgane Bomsel does not give up the idea of ​​seeing the hexagonal research work miracles, thanks to the patches stuck here and there. Provided, all the same, that the competition skates a little.

@InstitutCochin Two projects by @InstitutCochin selected by # ANR as part of the Flash call # COVID19. MUCOLUNG worn by Morgane Bomsel and COVIDOMICS worn by Guillaume Assié.https: //t.co/hC6tJBsv7a pic.twitter.com/txRNuxH94E

"Either it's simple to make a vaccine, you take the surface protein of the virus and it works, in which case the others are ahead. Either it's more complicated than expected and we'll come back to the game. French researchers have always had original ideas, and I think there are more subtle ways to induce immunity with a vaccine. But it is useless to go too fast: to pass tests on the mouse to the man directly? Let's stay serious. When I see the control barriers that jump right to left, that raises some ethical questions which we will have to come back to later ”. Directly in the gums of the Moderna laboratory and its first human trials in March in the United States. But after the puff of pride, the desire to falter: if French research comes out a winner in the craziest race for vaccines ever organized, it is because it is not about to arrive. Neither in 2021, nor even in 2022.

Politics

Coronavirus: "Equal access for everyone to the vaccine is not negotiable", Edouard Philippe replies to Sanofi

Health

Coronavirus: A vaccine available within a year, an "optimistic" scenario, according to the European Medicines Agency

• Sanofi
• Pastor Institute
• Vaccine
• Coronavirus
• Covid 19
• Health