Medical Research

A female face within a sphere bearing the word UNION leans over DNA fragments viewed through a microscope. Her oblique angle relative to the research subject represents science mastering the infinitely small in order to study it and find cures for disease. The monogram "RF" appears at the upper right; the year of issue "2020", the Pessac Mint mark, the rectangle of Chief Engraver Joaquin Jimenez, and the mintmaster's mark of Yves Sampo at the lower left.

France has been one of the leading countries in modern medicine and science since the 19th century. Louis Pasteur established microbiology and immunology as independent disciplines in Paris; the institute named after him, the Institut Pasteur, continues to research infectious diseases and vaccines today and ranks among the world's most renowned biomedical institutions. Alongside it stands INSERM, the national institute for health and medical research, which has coordinated clinical and translational research in France since its founding in 1964. That France has repeatedly received Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine in the 20th and early 21st centuries — including for the discovery of HIV by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier in 2008 — shows how deeply this research tradition is institutionally embedded.

At the European level, France has actively helped shape cross-border medical research, for instance through its participation in the EU framework programmes for research and innovation, as well as bilateral and multilateral cooperation with German, British and Scandinavian research institutions. Genetic engineering and genomic research — a growing field since the 1990s — have fundamentally transformed the methodology of basic medical research: analysing DNA structures at the molecular level is now a central tool in the search for treatments for cancer, rare diseases and infectious diseases. With its 2020 issue, France marks this scientific tradition — in a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic brought the societal importance of medical research abruptly into global focus.