British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (right) visits the production unit of French biotech Valneva, Scotland, January 28, 2021. -

W. Cheung / AFP

  • The Franco-Austrian biotech will launch the production of its anti-coronavirus vaccine.

  • Production will take place in Scotland, the United Kingdom having been the first to financially support Valneva.

  • However, the boss of Valneva wanted to produce in France, assures the president of the Pays-de-la-Loire region, Christelle Mor Anglais.

After the difficulties encountered by Sanofi and the Institut Pasteur in their quest for a vaccine against Covid-19, part of the hopes of French research lies in the Franco-Austrian biotech Valneva.

Based in Saint-Herblain in the suburbs of Nantes, it has let it be known that it was successfully completing its clinical trials and that it was preparing to launch production of its vaccine, which has the great advantage to keep in a simple refrigerator.

Except that this vaccine will be developed and produced in the United Kingdom (Scotland).

And the first 60 million factory doses will be distributed to British citizens in the fall of 2021.

France and Europe, which are also preparing to order 60 million doses, will not be delivered before the current 2022. A delay which can be explained by the fact that it is indeed the United Kingdom which had first taken the risk of financing the Valneva test program and then made a financial commitment on a potential of 190 million doses.

“In order not to be late, we went to the first government that helped us.

It is logical that, contractually, we have undertaken to deliver them first, ”explains Franck Grimaud, director of Valneva.

The government alerted in June

This British priority arouses in any case the anger of several elected officials towards the French government.

Starting with the president of the Pays-de-la-Loire region, Christelle Mor Anglais (LR).

"It is a terrible feeling of waste and incomprehension that dominates in the face of this French and European failure", she laments.

The elected official claims to have alerted the government on June 9 "on the formidable potential of the company Valneva in the search for an anti-Covid vaccine and on the opportunity to develop, in Loire-Atlantique, a French production sector," which was also the firm intention of its leader.

This letter and the reminders that followed unfortunately went unheeded.

"

Bitter, all the more so since France is not particularly ahead in the distribution of other vaccines, Christelle Mor though considers "essential that the State show much more agility and responsiveness to support and defend our companies in the cutting edge in the fight against the virus ”.

Valenva's vaccine was developed using an already proven technology, based on inactivated virus, as opposed to messenger RNA, the solution used by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.

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  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Government

  • Nantes

  • Vaccination