At the microphone of Charles Villeneuve, on Europe 1, the president of Sanofi France Olivier Bogillot returned to the delay taken by Sanofi in the race for the vaccine against the coronavirus, while its product should be available next December.

And defended the strategy of his laboratory, which preferred to rely on a technology considered more reliable than that of messenger RNA. 

INTERVIEW

After long months of waiting, Sanofi recently clarified its schedule.

The French laboratory now plans that its vaccine against Covid-19 should be available next December.

Good news, as Sanofi has lagged behind in the vaccination race since the start of the crisis, compared to the rapid success of products from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

Invited Sunday of Charles Villeneuve, in

The great talks of Europe 1

, the boss of Sanofi France Olivier Bogillot defended the strategy of his group, he who had already denounced in recent months the "bashing" against the laboratory. 

"There will be a French vaccine"

"There will be a French vaccine. Sanofi is working on a recombinant protein vaccine which will arrive at the end of the year," he said, recalling that Sanofi is also working on another vaccine based on messenger RNA technology , with an American partner, the startup Translate Bio.

"We are the only laboratory in the world to have two vaccine candidates in development," he emphasizes. 

>>

 REPORT - Coronavirus: in nursing homes, we are already preparing for the 3rd dose

Asked about the delay taken by Sanofi, Olivier Bogillot prefers first "to congratulate himself on the speed with which the pharmaceutical industry and research, with the mobilization of States, was able to respond in absolutely record time to this epidemic".

In the end, the Sanofi vaccine "will arrive in 18 months" after the start of the epidemic.

"Between 9 and 18 months to develop three vaccine technologies (by adding the techniques of messenger RNA and adenovirus, that used by AstraZeneca), it is totally exceptional," he said. 

"Have multiple arrows in the quiver"

And Olivier Bogillot to defend the strategic choices of the French laboratory. "In March 2020, different laboratories decide to launch into vaccines using different types of technologies. And Sanofi chooses a technology, which is the adjuvanted recombinant protein, which, in March of last year, is probably the most known effective in vaccination, "he says. "We made this choice because we have mastered this technology. We do not choose messenger RNA, because until Covid-19, it has never been proven, we do not know if it will work . "

When making this choice, he argues again, "we know that it will eventually take longer than messenger RNA and adenovirus, but we assume it, because we say to ourselves if the other two don't. not work, maybe we will walk ". For the guest from Europe 1, the multiplicity of search strategies has its advantages. "It is a very good thing that manufacturers have chosen several technologies. If one step is better than the other, it is all the same for the benefit of patients (...) This makes it possible to have several arrows in the quiver at the case one does not work. "