The Sanofi logo, February 4, 2022 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Eric PIERMONT)
The French laboratory Sanofi will invest 1.5 billion euros in France to develop the innovative technology of messenger RNA, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Monday from the group’s site in Neuville-sur-Saône (Rhône).
In this envelope, 935 million will be disbursed between 2022 and 2026, said Mr. Castex, welcoming “the ambition to develop six candidate messenger RNA vaccines by 2025”, targeted on infectious and emerging diseases.
Recalling the “national trauma that this vaccine race was” against Covid-19, in which Sanofi was largely relegated by its competitors (Pfizer, Moderna, etc.), Mr. Castex laid the first stone of a new production unit in Neuville-sur-Saône, the construction of which was announced by Emmanuel Macron in June 2020.
“With such equipment, Sanofi will not only be able to produce vaccines in France but produce 3 or 4 simultaneously,” boasted Mr. Castex.
In total, “200 new jobs will be created on the site, in addition to the 130 at the center of excellence” in Marcy-l’Etoile, also near Lyon, argued the Prime Minister.
Sanofi had announced that it was going to invest two billion euros in RNA last year, without specifying at the time the distribution in the world.
By strengthening its roots in France, the objective is to create the entire value chain there, explained to AFP Olivier Bogillot, the group’s French president.
“The idea is to create an ecosystem”, he commented, referring in particular to the production of lipid nanoparticles, these essential elements for RNA vaccines, for which there is no producer in France at present.
“We wanted to have a reflection on European sovereignty. It is important to be able to have on French and European soil production capacities from A to Z on messenger RNA”, further noted Mr. Bogillot.
Because during the Covid crisis, “all the French saw the state of dependence in which we found ourselves”, lamented Mr. Castex. Regarding vaccines, it took two years of crisis, so that “two French solutions are currently in the authorization procedures at the French Medicines Agency”, including that of Sanofi, which uses a more traditional technology than RNA messenger.
“We have taken steps so that this does not happen again” because “it is a sword of Damocles for our medical independence and our sovereignty”, assured Mr. Castex.
A Sanofi laboratory in Neuville-sur-Saône in November 2012 (AFP/Archives/JEFF PACHOUD)
Research and innovation in infectious diseases is thus the subject of an investment of 750 million euros as part of the France 2030 plan, with a “strategy that covers the entire value chain”. , said the Prime Minister.
This requires support for research programs, the strengthening of production capacities or the development of three “bioclusters” in France.
On this last point, Lyon is a candidate to host one of these projects, centered on immuno-infectiology, after the opening of the biocluster on oncology in Saclay (Essonne).
© 2022 AFP
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