Philippe Froguel, doctor, researcher in endocrinology, molecular biology and genetics, and director of research at the CNRS within the Institut Pasteur de Lille. (Archives) – M.LIBERT / 20 MINUTES
- Professor Philippe Froguel, CNRS researcher, wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister
- He urgently asked him to authorize “the research laboratories to carry out tests”.
- According to the researcher, “nothing could have progressed concretely, for a regulatory reason”.
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A solution to multiply the production of Covid-19 tests. At the heart of the health crisis in France, Professor Philippe Froguel, researcher at the CNRS and known worldwide for his
work on diabetes in Lille, raised an alarm cry on Tuesday in an open letter to the Prime Minister.
It proposes to reach the objective of “50,000 PCR screening tests for Covid-19 infection per day in April” by authorizing “the research laboratories of Inserm and CNRS which master the simple necessary technique, to practice tests. “
“Able to perform 1,000 tests per day instead of 300”
According to him, “nothing could have progressed concretely, for a regulatory reason”. “These laboratories are not accredited by the French Accreditation Committee (Cofrac) to carry out diagnostic tests. Cofrac now closed due to confinement, “he denounces.
Professor Froguel says his laboratory, for example, “is able to perform 1,000 tests a day next week.” Currently only 300 tests are carried out in Lille per day ”.
The researcher points out that “elsewhere in France other CNRS laboratories have made the same request” and “are only waiting for authorization” to start working. In a press release dated March 24, the Academy of Medicine already proposed calling on “research laboratories, in particular in genetics and molecular biology, which (…) already have the equipment and above all competent personnel, currently confined to their homes, but many of whom volunteered to do the tests. “
Breaking down a legal barrier
In addition, four presidents of departments (Indre-et-Loire, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique) also wrote to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, to ask him that a public analysis laboratory, Inovalys, could develop tests of Covid-19 by breaking down a legal barrier, according to West France.
“The generalization of Covid-19 screening tests (…) is essential, not only to protect the population but also to prepare for the end of confinement and the gradual resumption of normal social and economic life”, still assures Philippe Froguel .
The latter doubts the arrival and rapid implementation of “millions of PCR screening tests, as well as robots” ordered by the government. “It is not a question of days, but of several weeks, which will be necessary for the city’s medical analysis laboratories to take over massively from the hospital laboratories. “
