Macron calls on Sanofi to relocate part of drug production

Text by: RFI Follow

The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron called on Tuesday to relocate part of the production of drugs during a visit to the Sanofi laboratory, which will invest 610 million euros to boost its vaccines and create a new factory in France.

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The pandemic has brought the issue of health security back to the fore, notably with strong tensions over certain drugs, such as curares. "  As of Thursday, we will launch an initiative to relocate certain critical productions  ," announced the President of the Republic at a press conference following his visit to the Sanofi factory in Marcy-l'Étoile on Tuesday. .

The head of state again took on sovereignist overtones on the occasion of this passage through the Lyon region, a tone adopted with consistency since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. "  Everyone saw during this crisis that drugs that seemed common were no longer produced in France and in Europe,  " he continued.

Emmanuel Macron announced the establishment of a "planning mechanism" for French production in the health sector, as well as an envelope of 200 million euros to finance production infrastructure.

A new factory in Neuville-sur-Saône

The pharmaceutical giant Sanofi will answer the call of the Elysee: the group announced as of Tuesday investing nearly half a billion euros in a new factory in Neuville-sur-Saône, in the Lyon region, to create an Evolutive Vaccine Facility, specializing in the production of vaccines, which will be installed next to an already existing production site in Sanofi.

This investment of 490 million euros over five years should create 200 new jobs, specifies the laboratory, and will be able to produce 3 to 4 different vaccines simultaneously, against only one in current industrial sites.

This plant will allow Sanofi to "  secure the supply of vaccines to France and Europe in the event of new pandemics  ", according to the group. A crucial issue, as states around the world have embarked on a race to access a vaccine against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 436,000 people to date in the world.

Is it the citizens who have to pay for these relocations that have allowed pharmaceutical companies to reap huge dividends? ...

Nathalie Coutinet, economist and researcher at Sorbonne Paris-Nord University

Sébastien Duhamel

120 million euros to create a research and development center

Four European countries, including France, have just signed an agreement with the British laboratory AstraZeneca, which could reserve up to 400 million doses of a future vaccine for all the member countries of the European Union, as well as other European volunteer countries.

In addition to its new factory, Sanofi will invest 120 million euros to create a research and development center at its Marcy-l'Étoile site, which will be devoted in particular to the development of vaccines against emerging diseases and pandemic risks.

"  The investment you have just announced is an ideatable link between the two acts of the battle we have to lead," Emmanuel Macron greeted Marcy-l'Étoile, evoking the health crisis. which moves away and the economic crisis which begins. "  The project announced today is to put Sanofi and France in the excellence of the fight against the virus and to find a vaccine,  " he continued.

Sanofi, which is one of the main global players in the production of vaccines, is currently working on the development of two vaccines against Covid-19, expected in 2021.

But the group had created a heated controversy last month, when its chief executive Paul Hudson had raised the possibility of favoring the United States, which invested in its research against the coronavirus. A declaration little tasted by the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron then calling for this vaccine to be "extracted from the laws of the market". The head of state's visit to the laboratory's Lyon site on Tuesday nevertheless seems to show that this disagreement is behind them.

(With AFP )

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