On the morning of this Monday, October 14, the atmosphere is gloomy at the Sanofi factory in Lisieux (Calvados). Like most of his colleagues, Christophe Quillet, an employee of the pharmaceutical group for more than forty years, half of which manufactured Doliprane at the Normandy plant, is stunned. “For a year we knew it was going to happen, but the announcement was a hard blow”confess. Last week, Sanofi chose to continue exclusive negotiations with the American fund CD&R to sell 50% of Opella, its consumer health division, which houses the star painkiller in French medicine cabinets.
Concerned, the former CGT elected head of the factory’s social and economic committee joined the strike picket organized by factory employees on Monday. Sanofi can assure that the future of Doliprane manufactured in Lisieux is not threatened, but employees are skeptical. “If there really is no risk, then they should make a black and white commitment to continue manufacturing it in France for the next thirty years. We are not talking about a candy but about a medicine that the French need to cure themselves”says.
The debacle of Euroapi, Sanofi’s former active ingredients division from which the pharmaceutical laboratory was separated during an initial public offering in 2022 (Sanofi remains a 30% shareholder), left bitter memories among employees. As did the subcontracting, amid general indifference, of the group’s French distribution centers to the American company DHL in the spring.
Most consumed medications in France
On the contrary, the sale of Opella (5.2 billion euros in turnover in 2023), with its 11,000 employees, 1,700 of them in France, and its product catalog that brings together around a hundred brands of medicines sold without a prescription and supplements foods, does not fail to provoke a reaction. Since Friday, elected officials of all political tendencies have taken a step forward, demonstrating against the acquisition of Doliprane, the most consumed drug in France, by an American investment fund, and some elected officials have even urged the State to block its sale. sale.
Faced with this anger, the government is trying to calm the fire. On Monday, the Minister of Economy, Antoine Armand, accompanied by the Delegate Minister in charge of Industry, Marc Ferracci, visited the Lisieux plant, Doliprane’s main production center in France, to meet with employees and unions. Received by the president of the board of directors of the pharmaceutical laboratory, Frédéric Oudéa, and the head of Opella, Julie Van Ongevalle, the Minister of Economy wanted to be firm about the conditions of the sale of the Sanofi subsidiary. “I want to be extremely clear here. “We will ask for extremely precise, solid and intangible conditions for the future.” Antoine Armand stressed, promising that “Doliprane will continue to be produced in France”.
You have 49.29% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
