France Increases Aid for Pharmaceutical Industry in Covid Fight

(Bloomberg) -- The French government said it will provide another 300 million euros for projects to quickly increase the production of vaccines and treatments for Covid, extending its previous pledges of state aid for the pharmaceutical sector.

Last year, the French government picked 17 projects for a total of 160 million euros of aid covering both mature and innovative medicines. Those investments were confirmed in the framework of a relaxation of European rules on state aid, which has since been extended to Dec. 31 2021.

With the new funds, the state aims to develop research as well as boosting medicine production the government efforts to expand testing and vaccination.

“The industry should from now be able to anticipate growing demand for the production of treatments and vaccines against Covid-19 and its variants,” the finance ministry said in a statement.

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