Should we fear a resurgence of the flu this winter? After a 2020-2021 season marked by a virtual absence of an epidemic, then a 2021-2022 season characterized by a late but moderate circulation of the virus, health authorities and health professionals fear a rebound in cases in the coming months. In the southern hemisphere, where the winter season has just ended, and which often foreshadows the form that the flu epidemic will take in Europe, the virus has been particularly virulent in recent months. Mobilized, the vaccine manufacturers, Sanofi in the lead, are ready, while the government gives, this Tuesday, October 18, the kickoff of its traditional annual vaccination campaign in France.
“Production, which represents 250 million doses worldwide, has been excellent this year. We are extremely confident about our inventory levels in France, and all over the world”, indicates Thomas Triomphe, executive vice-president vaccines of Sanofi, who specifies that 80% of the orders have already been delivered on the territory. The rest of the vaccines are stored in its factory in Val-de-Reuil, near Rouen, the largest flu vaccine production site in the world, where they will be distributed as needed.
Aging
With more than 33% market share, the tricolor laboratory has been the world champion in influenza vaccination for many years. In France, where it is largely in the lead, more than one in two flu vaccines administered are thus manufactured by the pharmaceutical giant.
A significant windfall for the industrialist. In 2021, sales of seasonal flu vaccines brought in 2.6 billion euros, or nearly 7% of its turnover. The market is all the more interesting as it has continued to grow in recent years. It should, according to Sanofi estimates, reach 15 billion euros in 2030, under the combined effect of the aging of the population – the elderly, more fragile, are the first targets of national vaccination campaigns – and the more sustained attention from public health authorities, anxious to increase their vaccination coverage in order to protect the most vulnerable from the serious consequences of an infection.
In France, the number of deaths attributed to the flu virus fluctuates between 10,000 and 15,000 per year
Because if the flu is benign in the majority of cases, it remains the cause, each year, of several hundred thousand deaths in the world. In France, the number of deaths attributed to the virus varies, depending on the intensity of the epidemic, between 10,000 and 15,000 per year. To encourage vaccination among the populations most at risk (people over the age of 65, pregnant women, patients suffering from chronic illnesses, people with severe obesity), the government has multiplied the vaccination points in recent years, relying especially on pharmacists.
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