His statements sparked outrage in France. Wednesday, the director general of the French laboratory Sanofi, Paul Hudson, affirmed with Bloomberg that the United States would be priority in the event of discovery of a vaccine against the coronavirus. A position justified by him according to the significant financial support provided by the American administration.
A few hours later, the company’s representatives in Europe were forced to qualify these remarks. Aware of having embarrassed his teams, Paul Hudson cracked an email apology to his colleagues on Thursday, reveals The Obs this Sunday.
“What happened is my responsibility”
“The past 24 hours have been long,” he wrote. Before explaining that the Bloomberg article “incorrectly suggested” that Sanofi would serve the United States as a priority in the event of a vaccine discovery. Recognizing nevertheless to have been clumsy, he continues:
“What happened is my responsibility. I would like to apologize to each of you for the delicate situation in which I have been able to put you today vis-à-vis our clients, governments , but also family members or friends. ”
Because “the article created a great controversy in several countries, particularly in France and in Germany”, affirms Paul Hudson who says having learned from this sequence that “trying to do or say the right thing does not always allow achieve the right result. ” Thanking all of his employees who “did an incredible job to put Sanofi at the forefront in the battle against the Covid-19”, Paul Hudson said he was “sorry that the title of the article jeopardizes all (their) collective efforts “.
The chief executive of Sanofi said that his intention was above all to encourage Europe to become more involved in research so that it would be better prepared for epidemics in the future.
“I have interacted with media and challenges regarding the critical importance for industry and governments to work together to increase industrial production capacity for vaccines,” he said.
He finally reiterates his ambition to develop and produce a vaccine “in 18 months” and promises that “if we were to succeed, we would not stop before everyone had access to the vaccine they need, everywhere.”
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