New twist in the sale of Doliprane: the French fund PAI, whose offer was not accepted by Sanofi last week, would have bid higher to buy the subsidiary of the pharmaceutical group which markets the drug, against a backdrop of social unrest. “An improved offer has been submitted to the tune of an additional 200 million euros” compared to the offer presented a week ago in support of the funds of Abu Dhabi Avia, Singaporean GIC, and Canadian BCI, declared a source from the entourage of the French investment fund to AFP. This source, however, did not specify either the amount of the competing offer or its own. Sanofi, for its part, does not wish to comment.
Last week, the pharmaceutical giant caused a stir by negotiating with the American investment fund CD&R in order to potentially sell it 50% of Opella. Note that this subsidiary houses around a hundred brands of non-prescription products worldwide, including Doliprane. This strategic project, a new example of the refocusing of “Big Pharma” on innovation, quickly took a political turn given the popularity of this drug used to relieve pain and fever within French society.
For their part, the unions are up in arms and fear a “social breakdown” in the 1,700 jobs that Opella has on French soil, including 480 on its site in Compiègne (Oise) and 250 in its factory in Lisieux (Calvados). “We are sacrificing Doliprane and French health sovereignty on the altar of finance,” laments Humberto de Sousa, CFDT coordinator of the group, present in Compiègne, where around a hundred employees gathered in front of the site. Present, the LFI deputy François Ruffin sent back to back the “two sharks” candidates for takeover, estimating: “The industrial sites must be in the hands of industrial players, and not financial players […] the government must oppose it.”
A tense context
This project echoes the challenges of health policy in a context already marked by difficulties in supplying certain medicines, including shortages of paracetamol in winter 2022/23. The outlines of this possible transaction are still in the discussion phase, but the prospect of the arrival of a foreign financial player in the capital of Opella is worrying right up to the top of the State. For several days, the government has been trying to reassure about the future of the French Opella sites by increasing the number of declarations on the written commitments requested from stakeholders in terms of jobs and security of supply.
But the exercise is delicate since we must not scare away foreign investors at a time when the executive is in a logic of reindustrialization. “This government is committed to maintaining Doliprane in France,” the Minister of the Economy assured Wednesday before the senators, adding that “maintaining employment is the absolute priority and will not be negotiable.” But, he clarified, “if we really want France to be at the forefront of research, of industry, that it be sovereign over all health technologies but not only that, we collectively believe that we can do without public and private funding?
“Obtain written commitments”
Furthermore, the president of Sanofi France, Audrey Duval, guaranteed on Thursday the “sustainability” of jobs, production sites and Doliprane. In vain. In the opposition, calls to block the sale are becoming urgent. “Our objective is not to block the sale, it is to succeed through dialogue in obtaining written commitments,” said Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson, on Thursday.
During the Covid-19 crisis, France embarked on work to regain its health autonomy by seeking to relocate the production of certain medicines including paracetamol, the chemical compound of Doliprane. The active ingredient has no longer been manufactured in France since 2008-2009 but a paracetamol production plant is being built on the Roussillon (Isère) site of the chemist Seqens, which has already signed contracts with Opella and Upsa (Dafalgan and Efferalgan).