“That Bpifrance is in the capital of Valneva did not prevent the public authorities from allowing themselves to be overtaken by the British”

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Any news is good to take. France is finally producing its doses! Humiliated by Great Britain and the United States, a former poor student in Covid management but first in class in vaccination, France intends to show that it is taking matters in hand. This Wednesday April 7, the first bottles labeled Pfizer-BioNTech will leave the factory of the company Delpharm in Eure-et-Loire.

“By the end of the year, 250 million doses of vaccines will be produced in France”, rejoices the Minister of Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Following the rise of vaccination campaigns, industrial France is mobilizing. And yet, it is now likely that the first vaccine made in France against Covid-19 will come out of a brand new factory … in Scotland.

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The biotechnology company Valneva, based in Saint-Herblain, in Loire-Atlantique, announced on Tuesday, March 6 that the first human clinical trials of its vaccine have given excellent results and that it will therefore by the end of the month, carry out large-scale experiments, called phase 3. This gives hope for a marketing authorization towards next fall, and immediate production since it is already in preparation for Livingston, near Edinburgh.

Salvation board

Paradoxical fate for this company, born on the benches of the Nantes group Grimaud, specializing in animal genetics. Its vaccines subsidiary, Vivalis, merged with an Austrian company, Intercell, which had developed a vaccine against Japanese encephalitis. Valneva specializes in exoticism, also marketing a vaccine against cholera.

Bad luck, 2020 did not like travelers. The firm loses more than half of its turnover (110 million in 2020). The Covid-19 is his lifeline. The fact that Bpifrance owns 8% of the capital did not prevent the public authorities from allowing themselves to be overtaken by the British who, in July 2020, offered to buy Valneva up to 190 million doses by 2025, provided it produces them in Scotland. Contract signed in September.

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Six months later, the European Commission is still negotiating. Should we turn it into a drama or observe that producing for some and designing for others is the natural lot of an open Europe? Let us look optimistically for openness. But more dynamism and risk appetite on the side of France and Europe would not have been too much.