This is good news for European vaccination campaigns. According to JDD, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is to begin manufacturing starting Wednesday April 7 in France. Manufacturing will take place at the Delpharm factory, specialized in packing pharmaceutical goods, set in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre, Eure-et-Loir.
In all, four sites are to launch the manufacturing of the Pfizer vaccine for a total of 250 million doses expected by late 2021, distributed in the entire European Union. A numer reminded this Wednesday April 7 by Industry Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher: "250 million doses will be produced by the end of the year", she told Franceinfos.
And what will the production consist of? It will not involve the manufacturing of the active principle, since it is created in other European manufactories. It will involve packing, namely operations to fill vials in, packing the doses and sanitizing. Production made possible thanks to new installations that cost 20 million euros, half of it being in charge of the State, as our peers from JDD explain.
As for the other sites expected to manufacture the vaccine, are included the Swedish Recipharm and the French factory set in Monts, Indre-et-Loire, as well as two factories belonging to Fareva group, one set in Pau, Pyrenees, the other in Val-du-Reuil, Normandy, and Sanofi is expected to launch the production of the vaccine in a few weeks, while developing their own product. Please also note that the Delpharm factory in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre is also to manufacture the Moderna Therapeutics vaccine over the course of the year.
A challenge for France as well that will enable it to gain its former glory about vaccine production back. “The Covid-19 crisis shown how much thirty years of deindustrialization in the sector of pharmacy have reduced possibilities”, Industry minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher explains. She goes on: “it is our very pharmaceutic fabric that we have to rebuild”. A necessary rebuilding then, to return on the international scene and be able to face the coming health crisis.
