Sanofi: controversy and race for the vaccine

Audio 4:25

By: Pauline Gleize Follow

Back on the controversy around Sanofi. This Thursday evening, the president of Sanofi Serge Weinberg finally promised that no country would have a particular early access to a possible vaccine from the pharmaceutical group. A back pedaling therefore in the aftermath of remarks suggesting that the French company would give priority to the United States if it succeeded in its search for a vaccine against Covid-19. Words that caused an uproar.

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The French laboratory has largely put the French political chessboard in agreement ... against it.

Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, challenged Emmanuel Macron on Twitter, saying that it was "  unthinkable that a company which has its headquarters in France and which benefits from research tax credits  " favors United States. However, health economists point out that American aid has been directed towards research on the coronavirus, so we are witnessing an escalation. "  For therapeutic drugs, the laboratories choose the order of the countries in which they will put the drugs on the market, they often put the new drugs on the most juicy markets, explains Izabela Jelovac, director of research at the CNRS, economist of health. "But, I've never seen that for vaccines,  " she adds.

" Take away from the market games "

At the same time, alongside the argument of national preference, on the French political scene and not only, was widely put forward the idea that a vaccine is not a product like any other.

"  Health is a common good to be removed from the market,  " said the Socialist Party. Emmanuel Macron's formula hardly differs and the government hammered out its indignation yesterday. It must be said that the words of the director general of Sanofi are bad for the government which is already criticized on the management of the supply of masks. The government also which for months has shown its will to strengthen economic sovereignty, especially in terms of health.

Risk premium

For his part, in the interview with Bloomberg, the one that started it all, managing director Paul Hudson puts forward, to justify his position, American investments.

Sanofi, one of the world's leading vaccine specialists, has been collaborating with the American Authority for Advanced Research and Development in the Biomedical Field, Barda, since mid-February. This cooperation makes it possible to quickly start production in parallel with its recording. And the United States has put its hand in the pocket: some 30 million dollars. For Paul Hudson in Bloomberg, it was therefore legitimate for the country to benefit from the largest pre-orders and therefore a few days or even a few weeks ahead of the rest of the world. It is a kind of risk premium because research is risky. The risk of investing in projects that may not be completed or too late.

Appeals to Europeans

Since then Sanofi has partially returned to his remarks. The latest declaration was therefore issued last night by Serge Weinberg, the chairman of the laboratory's board of directors. He again assures us that there will be "  no particular advance from any country  ". There would be a priority for the United States only on vaccines produced in "  American factories, in no case on French and European factories  ". Paul Hudson's words would have been distorted.

Whether deliberate or not, this controversy has taken on the air of a negotiation strategy. The president of Sanofi France assured that "  if the Europeans work as quickly as the Americans, they will be served at the same time  ". The director general of the laboratory called on Europe to "  share the risks  ". Paul Hudson can request it directly from Emmanuel Macron, who will receive it on Tuesday.

The European Commission, which organized a telethon for research that raised 7.4 billion euros, was also outraged by the idea of ​​a scoop granted to the United States.

Public or private good?

This controversy in any case awakens the debate on health products. Are vaccines public or private goods?

A subject that divides Europe on one side and the United States on the other, recalls Carine Milcent, economist specializing in health issues at the CNRS. A debate which also raises many practical questions.

Emmanuel Macron wants a vaccine against Covid-19 to be "  extracted from the laws of the market  ". So now, the assumption of a priority given to the United States seems to have receded. Nevertheless, Sanofi is a private for-profit company. So how do you do it?

The Socialist Party brandishes the threat of nationalization.

140 personalities for a vaccine or a medicine free for all

For François Pochart, associate lawyer of the August Debouzy law firm, quoted by AFP, a provision which would reserve the first batches of vaccines for the financier could actually be provided for contractually between the two parties. But, he says, the state of health emergency allows the state to take all measures to provide patients with the necessary medicines. However, for this it is necessary that the vaccines be produced in France.

Izabela Jelovac evokes the track of another legal lever: the Doha declaration of 2001 on intellectual property "  authorizes a country or a group of countries to grant a compulsory license to a national company allowing to copy a medicine  ". But legal remedies, "  it could take years,  " she still believes.

In addition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Secretary of State for the Economy, judged that it would be unacceptable for a country to have privileged access "  under a pretext of money  ". However, production capacities will still pose the problem. "  You can't start from scratch and produce overnight for the whole world,  " says Carine Milcent.

So who decides who should be given the first vaccines and at what prices? Oxfam calls for the development of a fair distribution plan approved by all countries.

More than 140 personalities including Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, Macky Sall, his Senegalese counterpart and the Ghanaian head of state, Nana Akufo-Addo, insisted in an open letter: in their eyes, the vaccine or treatment against Covid-19 should be provided "  free to all  ". The signatories call on WHO ministers of health to rally around this position. They will be able to discuss it Monday and Tuesday at the annual meeting of member states of the World Health Organization.

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