“Among the five permanent United Nations countries, the one that invented the vaccine is the only country not to have found one against Covid-19,” notes affiliate professor Frédéric Bizard in an op-ed published in Le Monde (available in English here). “France’s ally and competitor in the European Union, Germany, will have developed two with the winning messenger RNA technology before the end of the first half of 2021…”
Specialized in social welfare and health issues, the economist draws up a precious diagnosis, as well as an action plan to relaunch medical innovation in France, which has been a pioneer in genomics and retains world-renowned researchers in this sector: “A way out of this situation of failure exists for the French industry, and the health crisis can serve as a leverage effect. First, the country of Pasteur [and Monod, who won the 1965 Nobel Prize] can legitimately create an Airbus of messenger RNA which would bring together a consortium of public and private actors dedicated to the research and production of innovative products based on messenger RNA,” he adds. “Second, systemic reform is needed in health products research, governance and financing.”
This knife blow received in our national pride should make us realize the gravity of the situation, but also our ability to bounce back
“This knife blow received in our national pride should make us realize the gravity of the situation, but also our ability to bounce back,” Prof. Bizard concludes. “The latter requires acting quickly and applying the measures proposed above, which are within France’s reach if the political will is strong. The stakes are high for the future of the country!”
It’s interesting to see that shortly after the Institut Santé (Health Institute), which he presides, proposed this initiative to the state, the French government launched a call for expression of interest which includes the same terms and financial dimensioning (a mere €300 million) “to manufacture more in France, not only vaccines against Covid, but also other drugs…”
License and Republishing
The Choice - Republishing rules
We publish under a Creative Commons license with the following characteristics Attribution/Sharealike.
- You may not make any changes to the articles published on our site, except for dates, locations (according to the news, if necessary), and your editorial policy. The content must be reproduced and represented by the licensee as published by The Choice, without any cuts, additions, insertions, reductions, alterations or any other modifications.If changes are planned in the text, they must be made in agreement with the author before publication.
- Please make sure to cite the authors of the articles, ideally at the beginning of your republication.
- It is mandatory to cite The Choice and include a link to its homepage or the URL of thearticle. Insertion of The Choice’s logo is highly recommended.
- The sale of our articles in a separate way, in their entirety or in extracts, is not allowed , but you can publish them on pages including advertisements.
- Please request permission before republishing any of the images or pictures contained in our articles. Some of them are not available for republishing without authorization and payment. Please check the terms available in the image caption. However, it is possible to remove images or pictures used by The Choice or replace them with your own.
- Systematic and/or complete republication of the articles and content available on The Choice is prohibited.
- Republishing The Choice articles on a site whose access is entirely available by payment or by subscription is prohibited.
- For websites where access to digital content is restricted by a paywall, republication of The Choice articles, in their entirety, must be on the open access portion of those sites.
- The Choice reserves the right to enter into separate written agreements for the republication of its articles, under the non-exclusive Creative Commons licenses and with the permission of the authors. Please contact The Choice if you are interested at contact@the-choice.org.
Individual cases
Extracts: It is recommended that after republishing the first few lines or a paragraph of an article, you indicate "The entire article is available on ESCP’s media, The Choice" with a link to the article.
Citations: Citations of articles written by authors from The Choice should include a link to the URL of the authors’ article.
Translations: Translations may be considered modifications under The Choice's Creative Commons license, therefore these are not permitted without the approval of the article's author.
Modifications: Modifications are not permitted under the Creative Commons license of The Choice. However, authors may be contacted for authorization, prior to any publication, where a modification is planned. Without express consent, The Choice is not bound by any changes made to its content when republished.
Authorized connections / copyright assignment forms: Their use is not necessary as long as the republishing rules of this article are respected.
Print: The Choice articles can be republished according to the rules mentioned above, without the need to include the view counter and links in a printed version.
If you choose this option, please send an image of the republished article to The Choice team so that the author can review it.
Podcasts and videos: Videos and podcasts whose copyrights belong to The Choice are also under a Creative Commons license. Therefore, the same republishing rules apply to them.
