A row has erupted in the medical community in France after Sanofi, manufacturer of popular painkiller Doliprane, announced it may sell control of its healthcare business to US investment fund CD&R.
Sanofi’s consumer healthcare business, which markets Doliprane, is called Opella. It recorded sales of €5.2 billion in 2023, and employs 1,700 people in France. Doliprane is its second-largest brand in terms of revenue, with 400 million boxes sold per year.
Sanofi’s announcement of its potential plans prompted angry and confused reactions from politicians and employees in France. Workers’ unions the CFDT and CGT have already called for a rolling strike, starting today (Thursday, October 17).
The issue of where drugs are manufactured has been particularly pertinent in France since the Covid pandemic, when the location of manufacture - and the effect this can have on supply and stocks - was severely questioned.
Similarly, France has faced a number of drug shortages in recent years.
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Why are Sanofi employees worried?
Doliprane is manufactured at two sites in France.
Lisieux (Calvados), which employs 250 people
Compiègne (Hauts-de-France), which employs 480 people.
Staff at the Lisieux site went on strike on Monday 14, and staff at the Compiègne site are set to strike today.
Political figures are set to attend today’s action, including François Ruffin, MP for the Nouveau Front Populaire party (left-wing alliance), and Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France Les Républicains party (centre-right), are expected to attend.
The unions and these politicians say they are worried about the consequences of the sale.
“Belonging to a large group is reassuring,” said Adrien Mekhnache, the CFDT delegate at Sanofi Compiègne, said to France 3 Hauts de France. “There's a significant social base, significant social benefits. The biggest fear for the future is the loss of these benefits, but also of staff: we know that investment funds don’t really go in for social benefits.”
He added that employees see the sale as a “betrayal” by Sanofi, after the effort that employees put in during the Covid crisis. When Opella was created in 2021, he warned that Sanofi could “sell us out”, and that this was why it created a “separate entity” in the first place.
Humberto de Sousa, CFDT coordinator for the Sanofi group, told FranceInfo: “They can make all the commitments they want with the government, but if the board of directors ends up in Ireland or the Benelux countries or under US law, it won't work.”
Johann Nicolas, a CGT delegate at Lisieux, told AFP: “Our first request is that we remain Sanofi.”
CGT leader Sophie Binet said that the possible transfer of Doliprane to the American flag is “a symbol of the total failure of Emmanuel Macron's industrial policy”. She claimed on TF1 that Sanofi has benefited from “a billion in research tax credits over ten years”, even as it “halved its workforce in France, particularly research jobs”.
Will the government get involved?
Because the issue concerns the manufacture of medication in France - which President Macron has said he wants to increase - the government is keeping a close eye on this issue.
Mr Macron has responded to the news by saying that the government has “the instruments to ensure that France is protected” in the event of a change in Opella's funding. In June 2023, the president stated that he wanted to relocate the manufacture of 50 essential medications to France, in a bid to ensure the supply chain and prevent shortages.
Read also: How does France plan to tackle shortages to ‘more than 3,000 drugs’?
Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq has already asked Sanofi for three guarantees.
Speaking on FranceInter, she asked for: “A guarantee that Doliprane is produced in France. A guarantee that pharmacies will have normal supplies to ensure access for our fellow citizens. And a guarantee that stocks will be sufficient to avoid stock ruptures during critical periods."
Economy Minister Antoine Armand has previously visited the Lisieux manufacturing site, and said that he has “begun discussions” with the parties involved, in a bid to reach an agreement on “commitments”.
He said that sanctions could be due if Sanofi’s actions are found to be negatively affecting “employment, production volumes, research and development or subcontractors”. The Monetary and Financial Code could block the sale if certain “commitments” are not made, Mr Armand said.
The French state could also consider the option of acquiring a stake in Sanofi or Opella, in order to keep Doliprane in France, the minister said. He added that he was “in the process of studying an agreement with the prime minister”, and considering the possibility of government involvement on the company’s board of directors.
Is there a risk of new shortages in the future?
The debate has emerged partly because of ongoing fears of drug shortages in France. Doliprane specifically has faced its own tensions.
Former Health Minister François Braun has commented on the news by saying he recalled the “difficulties we had with paracetamol shortages two winters ago”, adding that “this is a major issue in terms of France's sovereignty over the production of medicines”.
He has called for “a guarantee of supplies to pharmacies and dispensaries if the sale goes ahead”.
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However, one Republican MP and head of the emergency department at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, Philippe Juvin, told FranceInfo that shortages would not be avoided simply because of a factory on French soil.
He said: “Having a factory in France doesn’t mean we won't have a shortage, and not having one in France doesn’t mean we will have one,” he said to FranceInfo. “The whole thing is a story [because] the active ingredient of the drug is 100% manufactured in Asia anyway.”
The new shareholders of the company would still need to decide where the active ingredient would come from; whether India or China, even if the manufacture of the drug remains in France. However, the government has been working on plans to potentially relocate the manufacture of the active ingredient to Roussillon (Isère).
Yet, Bruno Bonnemain, president of the l'Académie nationale de pharmacie, highlighted the potential problem of moving the “decision-making centres” away from Europe. He said: “Anything can happen. This is the problem we have, for example, with China and India, who may suddenly decide that Europe is no longer a priority supply. In the long term, we can imagine the same thing happening with the United States.
“I would say that there is no risk of shortages of Doliprane in France in the next five or six years, but after that, it could pose a problem,” he said.
Sanofi response
“We understand the concerns…but they are unfounded,” said Sanofi's Chairman of the Board, Frédéric Oudéa, to newspaper Les Echos. “We have not stopped investing in Lisieux for the past ten years, and we are currently investing €20 million to increase Doliprane production and storage capacity by 40%.”
Mr Oudéa said that Sanofi would “retain 50% of the capital”, which would be a “guarantee” that Opella will remain “anchored in France”. Sanofi in France will still retain the right to “veto over major strategic decisions”, he said.
In a statement to AFP, Sanofi also justified the sale by saying that CD&R will provide financial stability to its consumer healthcare subsidiary. “[The sale is] due in particular to the fact that [CD&R] provides sufficient solidity and financial guarantees to maintain and develop Opella's activities in France and worldwide,” it said.
He added that CD&R was the “best partner” for Opella, and would “provide it with all the resources it needs for its development”.
Sanofi alone would be unable to do this, he said, particularly given “the many products” we want to launch, and “our ongoing investments in messenger RNA”. Messenger RNA is a type of technology used in vaccines, including those used during the Covid pandemic.
