France to Start Moderna Vaccine Production... Positive Signal for EU Supply Volume

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] France, which has been facing supply disruptions due to a shortage of vaccine doses, will begin subcontracted production of the COVID-19 vaccine from the U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna starting in March.

On the 3rd (local time), Agn?s Pannier-Runacher, Secretary of State for Industry at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, stated in an interview with RTL radio that production of Moderna's vaccine will begin in March, followed by Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech in April.

She also added that if the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the German pharmaceutical company CureVac receives approval for use, subcontracted production could start in France from May.

CureVac began Phase 3 clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate last December, involving over 35,000 participants across Europe and Latin America, and expects to have results in the first quarter of this year.

The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and CureVac are planned to be produced at four factories across France. Three of these are in France, and one is operated by a Swedish company.

Earlier, the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which is also developing its own COVID-19 vaccine, announced plans to produce the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at its Frankfurt, Germany plant starting in July this year.

European Union (EU) member countries, including France, began COVID-19 vaccinations at the end of December last year, but demand has exceeded supply, leading to signals of shortages in various locations.

As a result, voices supporting approval for the use of Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, which had been previously avoided due to lack of clinical data, are gaining strength on the condition of transparent data submission.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.