Covid-10 treatment race sparks international scandal: French manufacturer Sanofi says America would prioritize vaccine / European Commission: Vaccine must be a public good – Coronavirus



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Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson suggested that EE. USA It could be the first beneficiary of a possible coronavirus vaccine developed by the French manufacturer, which angered the French government and caused Brussels to react, AFP reports and Bloomberg

“The Covid-19 vaccine must be a public good and its access must be fair and universal,” said European Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker.

For French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, “equal access for everyone to the vaccine is not negotiable.”

The group warned the day before that the United States would likely be the first beneficiary if Sanofi manages to develop a vaccine, because the United States was the first to fund the company’s research, Hudson said.

Therefore, the United States could benefit from the vaccine several days or weeks before, Hudson told Bloomberg.

Hudson’s comments highlight the conflicts multinational companies and governments face in the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. More than 140 world leaders and experts on Thursday signed an open letter published by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS and Oxfam, calling for a “human vaccine” and treatments available to all for free.

The race could leave out countries that cannot afford the doses, making them vulnerable to mass deaths, economic disasters, in the context in which some countries will have their own country as a priority.

Therefore, experimental treatments at the University of Oxford will reach the British first before they reach other parts of the world, said Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca Plc, which will produce the vaccine, last month.

In France, reactions began to flow from the left and right parties.

The leader of the socialists, Oliver Faure, denounced a “market game”, evoking the antecedents of the nationalization, while Marine Le Pen, of the National Assembly, appealed to “economic patriotism”, judging that Sanofi is no longer a French company. In fact, the group’s shareholders are more than 60% of foreign investors.

The Secretary of State for the Economy, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, assured that he had discussed with Sanofi and that he had obtained the guarantee that the vaccine would be accessible to all.

This is a message that the group has been repeating since Wednesday night, ensuring there is no concern about the possibility that some countries will be deprived of treatment.

Sanofi does not continue to rule out the possibility of distributing the vaccine to the United States and only then to other countries.

Theoretically, “the goal is to make the vaccine available in both the United States and France and Europe in the same way,” group owner Olivier Boggilot said in an interview with BFMTV.

But in reality, this will be possible “if Europeans also work as fast as Americans,” he said.

As for the investigation … a Sanofi official confirmed that he is still betting on a vaccine prepared within 18 to 24 months, well before normal hours.

The development of a vaccine normally takes ten years, but now all phases are accelerated.



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