“There is no other solution but a European solution”… This is what French President Emmanuel Macron stated this Thursday March 25 after the European Council, advocating for the EU’s policy led so far, especially in terms of choosing to let the European Commission managing vaccine orders.
And he intended to reassure about the future vaccine production capacity, in a matter of weeks, on the European territory: “Europe enjoy varied and essential competences to produce vaccines, whether it involved conception factories or those in charge of finishing doses”, he said. In fact, several factories in France and Europe are to manufacture vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, including Pfizer – to be manufactured by Sanofi in their German factory in Frankfurt by the end of the year – as well as Johnson & Johnson – to be manufactured by Sanofi in their French factories.
So is Novartis, the drugmaker will manufacture the Pfizer vaccine in European sites. The Russian vaccine as well, Sputnik V, is to be manufactured in Italy and France once approved by the European regulator, to help Europe vaccinate as many people as possible by the end of the year. And Macron also added that Europe may eventually be “the continent vaccinating the most in the world”.
In France, vaccination promise is to be kept: by “the end of Summer […] having all adult French who want to be vaccinated, the possibility to be so”, the President also stated.
