France will soon participate in the production of anti-Covid vaccines

The Delpharm site, in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, in the north of France, April 4, 2021. AFP - SAMEER AL-DOUMY

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If there is still no 100% French vaccine, France will begin to participate in production in the coming days.

To show that France, despite criticism of the ineffectiveness of its research, is capable of acting.

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Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, village in Normandy, an hour and a half by car from Paris.

This is where the pharmaceutical group Delpharm, partner of the German laboratory BioNTech, will first release test vials to be sure that they are compliant, before embarking on commercial vaccine production.

Four other French sites will follow in the coming weeks, working for the Americans Moderna,

Johnson & Johnson

and another German lab Curevac, which is still awaiting marketing authorization.

In total, the Ministry of the Economy, anxious to restore the image of national industry, hopes at the end of the year 250 million doses.

But make no mistake, these will only be a few steps in the making.

Filling of bottles, packaging, sanitization.

The active ingredients of the vaccines, in other words the chemical that neutralizes the virus, will be produced elsewhere in Europe.

While waiting of course for the development of a vaccine by Sanofi, not before the second half of the year.

The French laboratory sees an advantage in this delay: its vaccine could be better suited to

new variants

of the disease.

► Also to listen: What are the reasons for the French failure on the vaccine?

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