France angered by suggestion U.S. would get first access to coronavirus vaccine by French pharma company Sanofi

PARIS — It would be "unacceptable" for French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to give the United States first access to a potential coronavirus vaccine, French government officials said Thursday.

The pushback came after comments by Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson.

“The U.S. government has the right to the largest preorder because it’s invested in taking the risk,” Hudson told Bloomberg News in a story published Wednesday. The United States, Hudson said, expanded its investment in the company’s vaccine research in February and thus expects that “if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first.”