Lhe Covid-19 pandemic had revealed one of the great weaknesses of the health system, known and denounced for years by the National Academy of Pharmacy: France’s dependence on its suppliers from China and India, who produce more of 80% of the active ingredients, these therapeutic properties sometimes the basis of vital drugs, as in oncology.
Concern returns, on the generic front, with the discreet sale of Biogaran by its parent company, Servier. In addition to European funds, two Indian companies are interested, according to The Informed And The echoes : Aurobindo Pharma and Torrent Pharmaceuticals. With the associated risks of relocation to their country of origin, which has become “the pharmacy of the world”.
Although Biogaran (240 employees) has no factories, it employs 8,600 people with subcontractors, who manufacture a third of French medicines under its brand. This shows the health and social importance of this laboratory in a context of reindustrialization and shortages of certain products. “Strategic review to maximize the potential of all our activities”pleads Servier, who assures that he has not yet “nothing decided”. A review which consists, for large laboratories, of abandoning patented products that have fallen into the public domain and are not very remunerative in favor of innovative molecules sold at high prices.
Possible loss of jobs
The affair did not take long to agitate political leaders. From Xavier Bertrand, president (Les Républicains) of the Hauts-de-France region, to Valérie Rabault, socialist deputy for Tarn-et-Garonne, she is moved by a possible loss of jobs and health sovereignty. The concern has reached the government. Roland Lescure, Minister for Industry, warned on Thursday April 18 that the State could always “activate the so-called “IEF” procedure”. It allows him to “control” foreign investments in France in sectors deemed strategic and, if necessary, to veto them.
“Producing in France the medicines essential to our lives: this is our objective”, affirmed Emmanuel Macron, in June 2023, presenting his strategy for relaunching health sovereignty. Some of Biogaran’s products are indeed “essential”.
There remains a debate on the price of generics being too low according to the industry – which the authorities admit – and a question, raised by Servier’s most virulent critics: after its conviction on appeal at the end of 2023 in the Mediator affair, which caused its results to plummet, isn’t the laboratory looking for cash to pay the 9.2 million euros fine, and above all 415 million reimbursements to Health Insurance and mutual insurance companies as a result? scandal?