Antoine Papiernik and Sylvain Gariel urge France to invest in vaccines

France must invest much more if it wants to regain autonomy in vaccine production, or at least get sufficient access to vaccines made elsewhere, Sofinnova Partners Chairman Antoine Papiernik and Sylvain Gariel, co-founder of DNA Script, wrote in a guest editorial published in Les Echos.

Germany, the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia all have taken steps to pre-order or reserve production capacity of vaccines that may be sorely needed as the pandemic takes off again in the colder seasons.

Investment in health care has a double impact, the two leaders pointed out: mitigating the kind of drop in gross national product most countries experienced during the pandemic, and bolstering a sector with a large potential for profit.

Threats to health ignore borders, they stressed in the article published Sept. 13. France needs to act in concert with its European neighbors, diversify its commercial partners and focus on making France a truly innovative country when it comes to health care, they wrote in the leading French business daily.

Read the article in Les Echos (subscription required)