France kicks against Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers prioritizing America

The French government has fired back at Sanofi -a France based global Pharmaceutical company for suggesting it would prioritize the American market once a Covid-19 vaccine was developed.

The company in collaboration with British based GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) had planned to initiate a clinical Phase 1 trial by mid 2020 and if successful, complete mass production by the second half of 2021.

French Deputy Finance Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, called “unacceptable” comments from the CEO of Sanofi suggesting the company’s plan to reserve the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine for the US.

“As the President of the Republic said, if a vaccine is discovered, we very much hope that it will be a global public good.” she said on Thursday.

Read also: US accuses China of hacking organisations carrying out research on COVID-19

“It would be unacceptable for Sanofi to reserve its Covid-19 vaccine as a priority, if it were to find one, to one country or another for financial reason,”

In response, Sanofi stated that it was currently in cooperation with the US’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and has benefited from “diversified foot prints from around the world”

Meanwhile, John’s Hopkins University ranks France 7th with the highest Covid-19 cases globally as 175,981 cases and 27,032 fatalities have been recorded so far.

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