It is a project which is causing a stir after the health crisis that we have just experienced. In Andorra, the Spanish pharmaceutical group Grifols intends to install a high security laboratory in the town of Ordino in 2023. It will be a P3 type laboratory, in other words “class 3 pathogen”. Is just one level below the Wuhan P4 lab, in China, still at the heart of an investigation almost two years after the appearance of Covid-19.
This new laboratory would be one of the largest research centers in immunology from Europe. The Andorran government is committed to it as a 20% shareholder. But the project is still very opaque and worries many residents, including some have launched a petition to say their refusal of the project. First, because we don’t know exactly what will happen there. Viruses could be studied there, in particular Covid-19, but the pharmaceutical group refuses for the moment to say more.
No bioethics law in Andorra
Opponents of the project are also wondering about the choice of Andorra for a P3 type laboratory. This is not to take advantage of the advantageous tax system, says Grifols. For opposition MP Carine Montaner, the explanation is simple: Andorra, unlike the European Union, has not signed no international bioethics convention. The principality is therefore much more flexible on these questions. The government promises to sign a law on the subject, but only once the project is launched.
There is also the choice of the location chosen for this immunology research center. It will be located in the municipality of Ordino, but also in the middle of a protected natural area, a “biosphere reserve” managed by Unesco. Has authorization been requested from the UN agency? There again, radio silence.
Unpreparedness in the event of an accident
After this period of health crisis, and while the hypothesis of a virus “escaped” from the Wuhan laboratory is still not ruled out, some residents fear a similar scenario in Ordino. “You can have a virus that escapes from a laboratory, especially because the site is next to a river and floods are common in Andorra”, worries Joamé, a committed citizen at the origin of the petition against the lab. “This could endanger the entire region: the population, the flora and fauna, as far as France and Spain.”
If ever there is an accident like this in the lab, we won’t be able to deal with it.
Joamé is also worried about Andorra’s unpreparedness in an emergency on such installations. “If ever there is an accident like this one day, we will be unable to cope with it”, he says. “We don’t have firefighters trained for this, not the right equipment, not a hospital ready to contain such a problem, not the doctors or nurses … We should be able to check this whole chain of safety.”
For its part, the government is especially putting forward its desire to diversify the economic activity of the principality. Develop scientific research to end dependence on tourism and cross-border trade.
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