By SudOuest.fr with AFP
France’s inability to create a vaccine against Covid-19 has been a “trauma” for the Prime Minister who wants to relaunch investment in health research through Sanofi
Prime Minister Jean Castex, regretting that there could not have been a vaccine against Covid-19 produced in France, will announce next month “a massive plan for the reinvestment of Sanofi in France”, he indicated. Friday during a meeting with caregivers in Obernai (Bas-Rhin).
“We have all under-invested in health for 40 years. […] The question is whether those who are in charge today, as is my case, take the right decisions, ”said Castex during an impromptu conversation with two department heads from the new Obernai hospital.
“All French people, in Alsace as elsewhere, have been traumatized by this affair like me: it is the lowering of resources for 30 years on innovation in health research that has resulted in us not doing of French vaccine… That is no longer possible! We must reinvest massively,” he continued.
“I will announce in the second half of February a massive reinvestment plan for Sanofi in France, because we have to start again. We are going to create a Health Innovation Agency. We must relocate manufacturing to France, as we did with paracetamol. It is also a question of sovereignty,” he continued, without giving further details.
After having inaugurated in the morning in Strasbourg the National Institute of Public Service (INSP), successor of the ENA, Jean Castex did the same for the extension of France Services of the small town of Truchtersheim, in the suburbs of Strasbourg. The Prime Minister lived for several years nearby, in Kuttolsheim, in the early 2000s and he has kept many ties in the region.
Jean Castex ended his Alsatian day with a visit to the nearby vaccination center, almost deserted early Friday afternoon, where he spoke with volunteers, nurses and the few people who came to be vaccinated.