• Scheduled for the end of 2021, the vaccine against Covid-19 from the French laboratory Sanofi - developed in cooperation with the British firm GSK - will arrive on the market late, but in time for the first recalls.

  • Having financed part of the development of this serum, the French state should be in a good position to negotiate the prices and the number of doses of vaccines ordered.

  • In a world where the economy of health and care is growing more and more, having its own vaccine had become essential for the “brand image” of France at the international level.

Starting late and slowing down during its race, Sanofi finally seems to be back in the great global competition for Covid-19 vaccines. The French laboratory announced Monday that phase 2 clinical trials on its main vaccine candidate, developed with the British company GSK, had given positive results. The pharmaceutical group plans to market it - if all goes well - by the end of the year.

Too late compared to Pfizer-BioNtech or AstraZeneca, already on the market for several months?

"No", answers Marie-Aline Bloch, researcher and professor at the School of Advanced Studies in Public Health (EHESP).

“Sanofi has lost a battle but not the war, because we will have to make reminders.

Its vaccine could very well be used to remind the RNA vaccines of the first people vaccinated at the beginning of the year.

“The needs could again be enormous, and a new kid on the market will not be too much, believes the expert, especially in view of the sometimes saturated production capacities of other pharmaceutical companies.

France takes priority on doses

In terms of stocks precisely, although Sanofi is a multinational and its vaccine is intended for the whole world, there is little chance that France will find itself on the sidelines. "Sanofi is one of the laboratories subsidized by France, which will a priori give the State more leeway and legitimacy to negotiate a lower vaccine price, to be a priority or to benefit from a larger quantity of doses. », Explains Carine Milcent, economist specializing in health systems and researcher at the CNRS.

What make him forgive his delay in the eyes of the French, especially as the vaccine has other advantages.

“Unlike Pfizer, Moderna or Astrazeneca, which are not major vaccine manufacturers, Sanofi has large production and marketing capacities,” reports Marie-Aline Bloch.

In terms of cost, therefore, there is a great chance that it will be cheaper than the others.

Add to that a more classic conservation than the others, which will allow "easier distribution and vaccination campaigns".

So many factors that could place him as an international favorite and have a strong impact for the country.

France's international influence

First, an economic impact, since "it is in Europe that the most vaccines are produced and Sanofi has sites in France," suggests Carine Milcent. There is therefore no reason why there should not be French factories mobilized. "But for the vice-president of the scientific council of the Technical Agency for Information on Hospitalization (ATIH), beyond the employment linked to the firm itself, it is above all" the image brand ”from France which could be re-gilded.

“There is a real policy of appropriation of vaccines by all the countries which use them as a health weapon. Thus, the Pfizer vaccine is stamped "United States", although it is a multinational, "notes Carine Milcent. But until now, France has been a bit out of the way. The only member country of the UN Security Council not to have found a vaccine, it is also behind Germany, the headquarters of BioNtech. It would then come back on a sort of equal footing with its partners.

“We will have both the Sanofi firm, which appears to be innovative and dynamic, but also France, which shows a capacity for performance in terms of health.

With the aging of populations, this will become an excessively important element in the years to come ”, analyzes Carine Milcent, for whom the healthcare economy will become“ an excessively strong economic and diplomatic instrument ”.

The fact that a multinational with its headquarters in France has found a vaccine "contributes to the influence of the country".

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  • Covid 19

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Vaccination

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccine

  • Sanofi

  • Laboratory

  • Health