While many poor countries are lagging behind on vaccination, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna Therapeutics, calls on Europe 1 to strengthen international cooperation. On the other hand, he believes that given manufacturing constraints, the lifting of patents "will not add a dose of messenger RNA vaccine in 2021 and 2022 to help the planet".

The feat is undeniable, but unfortunately it does not benefit everyone. In early June, less than six months after the start of the first vaccination campaigns, the milestone of two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered worldwide was crossed. But the sharing of doses with poor countries remains a problem, as in Africa, where deliveries are almost at a standstill. As of June 4, the international Covax device had delivered 80 million doses to 129 countries and territories, much less than expected. Invited Wednesday from Europe 1, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna Therapeutics, therefore calls for "greater international cooperation", but warns that the lifting of patents, claimed by some, would be a false good idea. 

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How to give access to vaccines to the poorest countries?

International cooperation must be more important, he believes, in particular "at the level of the availability of vaccines for Covax".

On Europe 1, he insists on the importance of being able to export the doses.

However, "today, we have a big problem since the start of the crisis and the production of vaccines, for example in the United States, we have not had the right to export and therefore we are working with the American authorities to be able to export and help poor countries, ”he said. 

"The financial aspect is not a brake"

And while Moderna's vaccine is among the most expensive, Stéphane Bancel assures us that today, "the financial aspect is not really a barrier to access to vaccines in any country on the planet" . And to quote in particular the World Bank "which organized for the Philippines the provision of funds to buy the vaccines". 

But isn't it possible to speed up production?

Manufacturing a vaccine using messenger RNA technology takes time, recalls Stéphane Bancel.

“Messenger RNA is a new technology, so the traditional factories that make small chemical molecules or that make vaccines with older technology are not at all suitable. They don't have the machines or the raw materials to make them. these new vaccine technologies, ”he explains.

"It takes several months to build the machines" 

And building suitable machines takes time "because we have a regulated profession".

And to illustrate: "The machines that we buy to make this product have to be tailor-made for the process which is new. Then it takes several months to manufacture them. When they are delivered, to ensure the safety of the products, we must do tests over several months, to prove that the machine does exactly the function it was manufactured for and to ensure that the vaccine meets all regulatory safety and quality requirements for consumer protection. " 

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"The time required for the process of design, manufacture, installation and validation of the machines which takes 6 to 9 months, and the supply of raw materials" inevitably take time, he insists. Also, he believes that the lifting of patents, requested in particular by Washington, would not accelerate the distribution of vaccines to poor countries. "This will not add a dose of messenger RNA vaccine in 2021 and 2022 to help the planet," says the CEO of Moderna Therapeutics.