Since its creation in 1963, bioMérieux has become the world leader in the diagnosis of infectious diseases and the detection of contaminants in the food industry. At the head of this powerful group with 3.6 billion euros in turnover and 13,800 employees, a family from Lyon, the Mérieux, also illustrious – Marcel, the ancestor, was a pupil of Louis Pasteur – how discreet. Alain, 84, the architect of this tricolor success, and his son Alexandre, 49, who has chaired the company since 2017, have agreed to lift a corner of the veil.
L’Express: BioMérieux celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. What is your greatest pride: having made it a world leader? Or a French champion who still produces on national territory?
alexander Merieux: We work on viruses and bacteria that know no borders, neither geographical nor between humans and animals, and in this respect the fight against antibiotic resistance is essential!
Obviously, it is important that we are present all over the planet. But we remain very attached to our historic Lyon ecosystem, which is powerful and we do everything to keep it that way. France represents 7% of our turnover, but 30% of our workforce. We have made many acquisitions in recent years, particularly in the United States, without ever thinking of moving a particular production site or research center there for cost reasons. In each of our entities, our managers are committed to developing their expertise and their activity locally.
Alain Merieux: The flag, in world competition, is essential. When there is no more flag, we no longer know why we are fighting. If we settle somewhere, we don’t leave. The Mérieux Foundation has been established in Mali since 2004 with an infectiology center. The French presence is not well seen at the moment in the country, but we are staying.
And in China?
alexander : We built a production site during the Covid, near Shanghai. China is between 7 and 8% of our turnover. But the economic environment there is getting complicated.
Alain : We suffer from Sino-American tensions, despite the ties that unite us to this country. I know the Chinese leaders well, and for a long time. We received President Xi Jinping at bioMérieux headquarters in 2014. In my “youth”, I also worked on the Wuhan laboratory project. After the SARS epidemic in 2003, President Chirac wanted to help China acquire a highly protected laboratory. Philippe Kourilsky, the former Director General of the Institut Pasteur, who chaired the Franco-Chinese steering committee, resigned in 2008. I took over from him until the laboratory was handed over to the Chinese authorities in 2015, to create this research unit, but in no way to deal with it. Today, I am unable to say what happened there and if there is a link with the Covid epidemic.
The question of industrial sovereignty, and in particular the health sovereignty recently advocated by Emmanuel Macron, is coming back to the fore. What are you happy about?
Alain : It was time ! I remember the speech of certain French leaders, in the 2000s, on the fabless, the “factory zero”. At the time, when you defended the idea that we had to continue producing in France, people took you for a redneck. What a distraction! And what a lack of common sense! With the Covid, we finally realized that we lacked everything… It is therefore a very good thing that we are thinking of reindustrializing our country, which has fallen behind Italy in terms of the weight of its industry reported to GDP. I also regret that our governments do not sufficiently measure the excellence of the Italians on the industrial level.
alexander : We are a bio-industrial group. We do biology, but everything depends on industry. And it’s in our factories that it happens. Heart pounding, he is there. When R&D works hand in hand with production or with supply chain. It is in these exchanges, on a daily basis, that the solutions of tomorrow in terms of CSR are born. [NDLR : responsabilité sociétale des entreprises], energy savings. And that solidarity is also born at the height of crises. In January 2020, we saw that the health context was deteriorating very quickly in China. From family experience, we know that viruses travel. We thought it was going to happen to us quickly and we focused our efforts on Covid diagnostic tests. From the end of March, our small unit in Verniolle, in Ariège, released PCR tests intended for analysis laboratories. The whole house was mobilized on this single subject, in R & D, in production, at headquarters. This period was a very strong moment of employee commitment. And highlighting, to the general public, the importance of diagnosis for treatment. At every level, everyone felt extremely proud to work at bioMérieux.
Alain : As was the case for Institut Mérieux in 1974, when a wave of meningitis hit Brazil. We were the only ones with a vaccine at the time and we worked day and night to break this epidemic. When the collective mobilizes around an objective, the Gallic tribes are better than anyone. Contrary to what many people think, the French love the bridges of Arcole. So yes, politically and administratively, France messed up at first. But the United States also lost a lot of time. And China reacted badly with the “zero Covid”. In the end, I don’t think we were that bad. Messenger RNA would still be at the research stage if it hadn’t been for this global shock.
What lessons did you draw from this extraordinary sequence?
alexander : We move quickly when we are focused on a single goal. And if we depend, for part of the process, on a small supplier, who itself depends on a small supplier, it is imperative to identify upstream the risks of disruption in the supply chains. To anticipate solutions, before the problem occurs.
The concept of “family capitalism” is often evoked to explain the success of bioMérieux. How do you define it?
Alan: It’s a big word… We are first and foremost entrepreneurs, in love with their production sites and their research campuses. And then, we have the impression of not being totally useless in this world, it gives reasons to fight.
alexander : The notion of the long term is central to our model. We may be listed on the stock exchange, but we don’t just think based on the quarter, nor on financial performance alone. R&D takes time. Bringing out a new product can take seven years. Buying a company that does not yet have a turnover but which has a promise for patients is only possible if we give ourselves time. What family-run businesses offer.
Alain : My credo is that to implement a long-term vision, in a geopolitically and technologically shaken world, you have to keep control of capital. To protect the business. This does not prevent the association of partners. We have done this in the past with Wendel. There, we have just brought in the Agnelli family at the level of the holding company, the Institut Mérieux, up to 10% [NDLR : pour 833 millions d’euros]. John Elkann, the grandson of Gianni Agnelli, is the same age as Alexandre, he is brilliant, turned towards foreign countries.
alexander : The Agnelli are industrialists, for several generations, with a European culture. They are in Turin, not far from Lyon. And Institut Mérieux is their first significant investment in healthcare.
You are a member of Afep, the association that brings together the largest French groups. Do the debates held there, like those within the Medef, interest you?
alexander : Afep, under the chairmanship of Laurent Burelle, has done a remarkable job. I sometimes go to Paris to take part in their meetings. I prioritize my time in Lyon, and internationally.
Alain : At Medef, we know Patrick Martin well, who is running for the presidency. I bought my first tractor from Martin Belaysoud, the family business he runs, fifty-five years ago. And I really collaborated with Medef when Ernest-Antoine Seillière took over the reins. Now, I am reaching an age where I am very happy to be from Lyon, and to no longer have to go to “feathered hats”…
alexander : This is my father’s quote, make no mistake! Me, I have to keep building my network (laughs).