Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that the production of around fifty drugs, for which France is too dependent on imports, should be relocated to national territory. During a trip to the Ardèche, the Head of State mentioned “fifty essential medicines for which our dependence on imports from outside Europe is proven” and which must therefore be “relocated”.
Eight new relocation projects
Twenty-five of them “will see their production relocated or significantly increased (…) in the weeks to come”, added the head of state. These are either drugs produced abroad, or drugs already produced in France but whose production is in tension with respect to demand, explained an adviser to the Elysée.
Eight new relocation projects, representing a total investment of more than 160 million euros, will be supported by the State, he said. They relate to amoxicillin – with the strengthening of the capacities of the British GSK in Mayenne – strategic drugs for anesthesia-resuscitation, morphine painkillers or even cancer drugs, detailed the Elysée. One of them also concerns the production of strategic emergency and resuscitation drugs by the Aguettant laboratory, one of whose sites Emmanuel Macron visited on Tuesday in Champagne in Ardèche.
A first envelope of 50 million euros, promises Macron
For the other identified drugs, a counter will be launched “in the very next few days” in order to support the projects, with a “first envelope of 50 million euros”, specified Emmanuel Macron.
These 50 drugs are part of a list of 450 so-called priority drugs on which “we must absolutely secure our chains either by relocating completely or by diversifying and continuing to innovate”, specified the president. This list will be presented in the afternoon by the Minister of Health François Braun.