Paris (AFP)

The High Commissioner for Planning François Bayrou called on Tuesday to invest in research to avoid the brain drain, "a sign of an" unacceptable "downgrade" from France, the day after the Institute's failure was announced. Pasteur on an anti-Covid vaccine.

Noting that Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of the biotechnology company Moderna which developed an anti-Covid vaccine, is French, he estimated on France Inter that it was "not possible that our researchers, the most brilliant of our researchers , so (ie) nt sucked into the American system ".

"This is the sign of a downgrading of the country, and this downgrading is unacceptable," said Mr. Bayrou, also president of the MoDem.

He called for "building our public action, including research, as the Americans did decades ago" with "an organization that helps identify essential research for the future".

He admitted that "it is money", but "money well placed" and a "necessary investment".

While the pharmaceutical group Sanofi had already warned in early December that its first vaccine against Covid-19 would not be ready until the end of 2021, the Pasteur Institute announced on Monday the end of the development of its main vaccine against this virus.

Sanofi also confirmed in mid-January a plan to cut 1,000 jobs including 400 in research and development (R&D), taking up an announcement made in June.

"It's still a bit of a shame that a group like Sanofi (...) is not able to put a vaccine on the market," said PCF national secretary Fabien Roussel on Tuesday on Public Senate.

"It is the humiliation of France", "to what level has the nation fallen?"

Sanofi, "guided by the requirements of profitability", "has chosen to type in research, instead of investing heavily", lamented the head of the PCF who will participate Wednesday in a mobilization in front of the headquarters of the group.

On Twitter, the former socialist minister Ségolène Royal denounced "the liberal ideology which leads to the reduction of support for public research and the too low remuneration of researchers who go elsewhere", calling for "to give back to health research its letters of nobility ".

The former minister and current mayor of Meaux Jean-François Copé, for his part, defended Sanofi on Sud Radio, calling for "not to overwhelm": scientific research, "it is a daily struggle, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail ", and" tomorrow Pastor, Sanofi, will succeed on other things ".

© 2021 AFP