The vaccine developed by the American company Moderna was the subject of a recommendation from the High Authority for Health on January 6. It is a messenger RNA technology, like the vaccine developed by the companies Pfizer and BioNTech, but it can be stored at -20 ° C. Delivery to Dijon will take place the week of January 11.
Press release from the Ministry of Health of January 10, 2021:
COVID vaccine: first delivery of Moderna vaccine doses announced Monday, January 11 to strengthen vaccine capacity in areas most affected by the epidemic
After receiving a European marketing authorization on January 6, the vaccine developed by the American company Moderna was the subject of a recommendation from the High Authority for Health (HAS), like the vaccine developed by the companies Pfizer and BioNTech.
The vaccine from the company Moderna uses the same “messenger RNA” technology as the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. The two vaccines can therefore, in application of the HAS recommendation, be used interchangeably within the framework of the vaccine strategy proposed by the High health authority and implemented by the Government. From a logistical point of view, the Moderna vaccine presents less severe constraints, in particular in terms of storage temperature (-20 ° C) and thawed shelf life (30 days), even if these remain strong. By the end of June, nearly 8 million doses are expected for the Moderna vaccine.
This authorization paves the way for a first delivery of doses as of Monday, for a volume of 5,160 vials each containing 10 doses of vaccine, which is in addition to the weekly deliveries of Pfizer vaccine. The Minister of Health wished, once the delivery has been verified by the pharmacists who are partners of Public Health France, that these additional doses can benefit in priority the regions in which the epidemic is the most active: Grand Est, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. , Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. The following health establishments will therefore be supplied during the week, and through them the vaccination centers now open in their departments and / or regions:
– Mulhouse
– Colmar
– Strasbourg
– Reims
– Nancy
– Metz
– Lons-le-Saunier
– Besancon
– Dijon
– Moulins
– Nice
– Toulon
The distribution circuit of the Moderna vaccine, whose deliveries will continue within a fortnight and will increase in the course of the first quarter, will have vocation in the coming weeks to switch to the dispensary circuit which links France in an extremely fine way, in order to ‘on the one hand, not to massively overload the management of hospital pharmacies in pivotal establishments, and, on the other hand, to prepare for the arrival throughout the country of other vaccine candidates who will be integrated into this same circuit. Work with healthcare professionals, and in particular doctors, pharmacists and wholesaler-distributors, is continuing within the framework of close consultations and direct discussions every week, in order to anticipate as well as possible.
“The authorization of the Moderna vaccine by the European Medicines Agency and the High Authority for Health, allows us to have more than 50,000 additional doses of vaccine this week. I wanted these doses to be allocated to the regions most affected by the pandemic. These doses can be administered from next week when they arrive at the vaccination sites, ”explains Olivier Véran, Minister of Solidarity and Health.
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