United Kingdom, China, Russia, United States … Of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, four have already been able to produce and develop a vaccine against the coronavirus epidemic. All, except France, therefore, which still has to wait for the product developed by Sanofi to be available next December. Sunday guest Major talks in Europe 1, the director general of the French laboratory, Olivier Bogillot, explained the reasons for this delay, and insisted on the strategic choices of the various French governments in recent years, guilty, according to him, of not having invested enough in research.
The obsession with savings
For Olivier Bogillot, it is necessary “to look at how France and Europe have treated the sector of the pharmaceutical industry and the life sciences”. In recent years, he assures, “a large number of rulers have considered that it was not a strategic sector, and have rather considered that it was a source of expenditure, because the expenditure of drugs is reimbursed by Health Insurance, by Social Security and that it was necessary to save money, to absorb deficits “. And “the best way to absorb them was to lower the price of drugs and save money in this sector”.
However, he notes, “other countries did not have this approach at all, and considered that it was a strategic sector”. And Olivier Bogillot to cite in particular China, the United States, Germany and England. In these countries, “there have been major investments in research, in development, in industrial facilities.”
The importance of a “strong pharmaceutical industry”
In France, the coronavirus crisis “revealed this vulnerability, and reminded everyone that this sector is strategic and that it requires significant investments in research, development, and in the production tool. “, adds the guest from Europe 1, calling for these investments to be maintained” constantly “. Because, he recalls, “research in the drug sector and the health industries is research that takes several years”.
Today, “in international competition, Europe, and France in particular, have rather downgraded,” insists the CEO of Sanofi, who illustrates: “Until 2004, France was the leading producer of drugs Europe. Today we are the fourth “. France has been “in another form of investment, with a choice to make investments in the offer of care, in the hospital or in other sectors, but not this one”. However, concludes Olivier Bogillot, “we can clearly see that in a crisis, having health technologies, having a strong pharmaceutical industry, is very useful”.
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