French official: ‘Unacceptable’ that US might get Sanofi coronavirus vaccine first

A French official on Thursday called it “unacceptable” that the U.S. might get first dibs on a successful coronavirus vaccine produced by the French company Sanofi.

Junior Economy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher reacted to Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson’s remarks on Wednesday that the drug company would likely provide its vaccine to the U.S. first because it was the first to provide funding for the research.

“For us, it would be unacceptable that there be privileged access for this or that country on a pretext that would be a financial pretext,” Pannier-Runacher told Sud Radio, according to Bloomberg News. 

Other international leaders responded similarly to Hudson’s comments, with the World Health Organization’s director for the Western Pacific region Takeshi Kasai saying vaccines are “global public goods, which belong to everybody around the world.”

The head of the French Socialist Party said on Twitter that Sanofi was at risk of being nationalized because “health is a common good to be shielded from market games,” according to Bloomberg News. 

The U.S. increased its partnership with Sanofi in February with the expectation “that if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first,” Hudson told Bloomberg News Wednesday.

But leaders and experts fear that prioritizing countries that fund these efforts will leave nations out who cannot afford to financially back potentially successful vaccines, leaving them to experience greater deaths and economic downfall.

Sanofi said in an updated statement sent to The Hill following Hudson’s interview that U.S. production of the vaccine will go to the U.S., while the rest of the manufacturing capacity will cover Europe and the rest of the world.

“We are having very constructive conversations with the EU institutions and the French and German government amongst others,” the statement read. 

Olivier Bogillot, the head of Sanofi France, told BFM Business TV that he does not confirm the U.S. will have the first access to a potential vaccine and “it will be available to all.”

Sanofi partnered with U.K. competitor GlaxoSmithKline Plc for the vaccine development project, and the companies can produce 600 million doses per year, which Hudson has said he hopes to double.