A French subcontractor will start producing "in March" the Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 and another will launch "in April" the production of that of Pfizer / BioNTech, the Minister for Industry announced on RTL on Wednesday. , Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

The day before, Emmanuel Macron had announced that the production of vaccines on French soil would begin "from the end of February, the beginning of March", after a meeting with the major French and European laboratories.

The Head of State had indicated that four production sites would participate in the creation of vaccines developed by other laboratories, including three French subcontractors.

In November and December, the French Delpharm had already announced that it would produce the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in its Normandy plant in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, the Swedish laboratory Recipharm the Moderna vaccine in Monts, in Indre-et-Loire , and the French manufacturer Fareva, the CureVac vaccine at its sites in Pau and Val-de-Reuil, for filling and packaging operations.

"The first production site to start will be in March for the Moderna vaccine," Agnès Pannier-Runacher said on Wednesday morning.

"We will have a production site which will then start in April, it will be for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. And in May, it should be for the CureVac vaccine, there we are waiting for the marketing authorization, so I put a conditional, ”she added.

The minister indicated that the French laboratory Sanofi - which has postponed the release of its own vaccine to the second half of 2021 - "will for its part also produce".

"We have worked with them so that they produce BioNTech vaccine in their German factory, this will help to move up production chains. If their vaccine has positive results, in April, they will also start production", detailed Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

Vaccines "may arrive earlier than expected"

The minister also mentioned the delivery times for the various vaccines: "Pfizer has reduced its production, (but) has already caught up with the French channels. It has delivered more than it was initially supposed to. Moderna should correct in the next 3-4 weeks. AstraZeneca, it should take longer, because AstraZeneca has a real problem on one of its sites. "

Agnès Pannier-Runacher also highlighted the fact that vaccines "may arrive sooner than expected: we have Janssen, Novavax may also be presenting its clinical results faster than expected. We have either good news. , either bad news, it is by constantly adjusting that we increase the production of vaccine ", summarized the Minister.

"We are rather confident to offer French people who wish to be vaccinated, by the end of the summer, a vaccination", she stressed.

Asked about the Russian vaccine Sputnik-V - which the journal The Lancet has just confirmed to be 91.3% effective - the minister declared that "any vaccine candidate who submits a dossier" to the European Medicines Agency "with the data needed for validation will be reviewed. We make scientific decisions, not political decisions, "she stressed.

With AFP

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