On Feb. 23, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve visited Wuhan National Biosafety Level 4 (P4) Laboratory in Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which was his first stop in Wuhan. More than 100 people from different administrative entities including CAS, China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) that have participated in the entire program on Sino-French Cooperation on Emerging Infectious Diseases and provided tremendous help in the past decade attended the activity. 

Mr. Bernard Cazeneuve attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony and paid a visit to laboratory interior. In his speech, Mr. Cazeneuve declared France is proud of building jointly with China the first national P4 Laboratory. And he added that, as epidemic knows no borders, a united world society is a must to win over the challenge like Ebola to public health in recent years. Wuhan P4 Laboratory will be our front line of emerging infectious diseases prevention and control. France will join hands with China to firmly dedicate to operating top-notch scientific research to response to the diseases. He thanked Chinese government and all the contributors’ extraordinary contributions, and wished more in-depth scientific cooperation on emerging infectious diseases around P4 laboratories will be developed by our two nations. 

Mr. Yaping Zhang, Vice President of CAS pointed out, that the laboratory will help China to strengthen the capability of preventing and controlling outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases and aid scientific research and development of antiviral drugs and vaccines. He hoped that the laboratory will play an active role in the Sino-French cooperation on prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases, so as to benefit not only our two peoples but also the entire world. 

According to Mr. Zhiming Yuan, Director of Wuhan P4 Laboratory, China is positively undertaking the responsibility and obligation to ensure global public health security. He emphasized that transparency is the cornerstone of the laboratory, and an open culture is of vital importance to guarantee the security of Wuhan P4 Laboratory. 

After the visit, Mr. Yves LECY, Director of INSERM, Mr. Hervé RAOUL, Director of Jean Mérieux-Inserm Biosafety Level-4 Laboratory in Lyon, Mr. Dianwen Cao, Vice President of Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS, and stakeholders from CNAS, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and WIV attended the Meeting on Sino-French Scientific Cooperation around Biosafety Level 4 Laboratories. The meeting was aimed at upgrading the bilateral strategic and cooperative partnership and further expanding the dimension and depth of cooperation between laboratories in Wuhan and Lyon. 

Wuhan P4 Laboratory, as one of the mega scientific cooperation programs under the Sino-French Cooperation Framework Agreement, was designed by French and Chinese design units, and was installed and built by Chinese part. The Laboratory has been issued the certificate by CNAS in January and will be fully operational soon. As an essential platform for research and development against high contagious and infectious diseases, it will inevitably provide critical and technical supports for scientists from the world to fight against life-threatening infectious diseases. 

 group photo of officiating guests and participants. Image by Changjiang Daily.