This is the end of an industrial soap opera that will have seen many twists and turns. Servier, the owner of the generic manufacturer Biogaran, announced on Friday 6 September that it was refusing to sell its subsidiary for the time being, considering that the offers submitted did not fully meet the criteria set by the group.
The announcement was made to Biogaran employees on Friday morning. For several months they have been concerned about the future of the pharmaceutical laboratory, which has 240 employees and on which several thousand jobs also depend through its network of subcontractors. “We have received several expressions of interest. However, these did not meet all our criteria for creating value for the company, employees, but also for industrial players and patients. Hence our decision to end the discussions.”we specify in Servier.
Several candidates, including Indian pharmaceutical companies Aurobindo and Torrent, as well as British investment fund BC Partners and Lyon-based industrialist Benta, have launched a race in recent months to buy France’s leading generic drug company, which sells nearly 320 million boxes of medicines in France each year.
strong reactions
According to a source close to the matter, several of the offers submitted would have reached “more than a billion euros”However, the possibility of a sale of the French group to a foreign player has sparked strong reactions, with some fearing a loss of national sovereignty if production were to be relocated.
The four candidates were received at Bercy, in particular in the office of the resigned Minister Delegate, Roland Lescure, shortly before the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly, to discuss the “red lines” that the government planned to impose in the event of a takeover. On Friday, the minister welcomed Servier’s announcement and welcomed a decision “very wise”. There is also relief on the part of Biogaran’s subcontractors: “We didn’t expect this. This is very good news.”one of them confesses.
The laboratory’s decision to stop discussions is also partly explained, according to Servier, by “political and regulatory uncertainties”. The lack of visibility on the 2025 Social Security financing bill, which must decide, in particular, the directions to be given to the safeguard clause, would have weighed on the sale project. This specific contribution to the pharmaceutical sector, which allows the State to control spending on medicines and whose value has skyrocketed in recent years, is in fact closely scrutinized by laboratories.
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