Emmanuel Macron announces a health plan of 7 billion euros for innovation

Published on : 06/30/2021 – 8:19 AM

French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled, Tuesday, June 29, the outlines of an investment plan of seven billion euros for innovation for the health sector, hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have a system which, on the whole, is less efficient than it should be: lack of investment, too many divisions, too much slowness and corporatism”, declared the French head of state in a statement. speech at the Elysee.

The presidential plan is the result of the work of the Strategic Council of Health Industries (CSIS), installed in January to draw lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, which revealed shortcomings in the French health system. The executive aspires to make France a European leader in innovation in this sector, with the objective of technological and health sovereignty.

The plan aims in particular to accelerate research through two billion euros of public investment in three key areas. Around 800 million euros in credits will be committed to biotherapies, for which France depends 90% on imports. The president set two five-year goals: “Produce at least five new biomedicines and double the number of jobs in the sector.”

Digital health will benefit from a budget of 650 million euros. Research on emerging and infectious diseases will be encouraged to the tune of 750 million euros.

France also intends to attract or bring back to France the most promising researchers. “Fifteen to 20 talents will benefit from grants of three to five million euros,” said Emmanuel Macron. Start-ups and SMEs will be able to benefit from an envelope of one billion euros in loans and grants from the Public Investment Bank (BPI), which will provide another billion for investment.

The funds will come mainly from the future investment program to which will be added European credits, specified the Élysée.

Manufacture of paracetamol in France from 2023

Despite its expertise in the vaccine sector, France has suffered a considerable delay in the face of Covid-19, which has earned its Sanofi laboratory strong criticism. Its recombinant vaccine – with the British GSK – should be marketed by the end of the year, a year after its competitors Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which developed the first messenger RNA vaccines.

The pandemic has also generated major drug supply problems. The pharmaceutical subcontractor Seqens announced on Tuesday that France would start manufacturing paracetamol again on its soil from 2023, formalizing the launch of a new plant intended to ensure this production on its Roussillon site (Isère).

This announcement comes a year after the presentation by President Emmanuel Macron of a strategy intended to relocate the entire production chain of this molecule within three years, the essential nature of which was highlighted at the worst of the health crisis.

The new plant will have a capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year. Its production will be absorbed by the pharmaceutical groups Sanofi (Doliprane brand) and Upsa (Efferalgan brand) which until now were content to package in France the active principle of this drug imported from Asia.

With Reuters and AFP