Monts (France) (AFP)

The State will invest 35 million euros in the plant of the Swedish group Recipharm in Monts (Indre-et-Loire), which is engaged in the production of syringes and vaccine vials for the American laboratory Moderna, announced Thursday the Minister for Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

"We are going to release 35 million for a project costing more than 50 million euros. This is the result of a call for projects launched last June, making it possible to support companies participating in the fight against Covid" , declared the minister during a press point on the site of the factory near Tours.

"We are engaged in a sprint, that of producing doses as quickly as possible and we must build the future and our capacity to face possible new pandemics," she added.

According to the minister, this is a first step in the reconstruction of pharmaceutical production sites in France.

"We must rebuild European and French autonomy in the production of pharmaceutical products. It is one of our priorities because for years, we have made drugs an accounting element of the budget of the social security finance law", a- she declared.

"We have not funded innovation for 30 years, and we have paid for it. Many sites have closed. For three years, we have been reversing the trend. Thanks to this crisis, we have the means to accelerate things with the stimulus plan, ”she said.

Recipharm has been producing pre-filled syringes since April 12, and filling and packaging vials for Moderna.

"We will build a new building and we will be able to more than double our current capacities with two additional production lines during 2023," Jean-François Hilaire, vice-president of the group, told AFP.

More than a million vials, or 10 million doses, must be produced each month.

They will be made available to Moderna, which will store them in a warehouse in Brussels before distributing them in Europe, or even in other countries of the world.

More than 230 people work on the Recipharm site in Monts.

About a hundred additional people were recently recruited for this vaccine vialing activity.

Recipharm is a Swedish group with 9,000 employees worldwide, including 5,000 in Europe and a thousand in France at four sites.

Only the Monts site works for Moderna.

© 2021 AFP