PARIS, May 14 (Reuters) - French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday he was "reassured" by a conversation with the head of Sanofi, after critics in France targeted Sanofi for suggesting vaccine doses produced in the United States could go to U.S. patients first.

The French drugmaker's chief executive, Paul Hudson, said on Wednesday that vaccine doses produced in the United States could go to U.S. patients first, given the country had supported the research financially.

"I believe it was a phrase, as far as I can understand, that was a bit clumsy, and perhaps taken out of context, and I was quite reassured by the conversation I had with the head of Sanofi," Veran told C News television.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Alison Williams)