The Pierre Fabre laboratories are essential in the Tarn department. Symbol of economic success but also promoter of the construction of the A69, the pharmaceutical group is as much pampered by local elected officials as it is ridiculed by opponents of this motorway infrastructure gathered for three days of protests between Friday June 7 and Sunday June 9 in Puylaurens (Tarn).
Pierre Fabre, the eponymous founder, has long been an essential player in this issue which has been open for a quarter of a century. From the end of the 1990s until his death in July 2013, he spoke tirelessly about it to community leaders, ministers and presidents of the Republic. “His position was known to everyone. He was perfectly in his role as business managerdefended it on May 29, Eric Ducournau, general director of the group and former deputy chief of staff of Dominique Perben from 1990 to 1995, before the latter became minister of transport under Jacques Chirac (2005-2007). He fought all his life for the opening up of the Tarn. (…) However, he would have had the opportunity many times to settle near a highway. »
Speaking before the National Assembly Commission of Inquiry “on the legal and financial arrangement” of the A69, Mr. Ducournau followed in the footsteps of the former CEO. According to him, this controversial construction is necessary for the development of laboratories. At the head of a group which achieved 2.8 billion euros in turnover in 2023 (+ 6% compared to 2022), the general director estimated, in front of the deputies, that Pierre Fabre had suffered a annual growth differential of 5% per year compared to its main competitors. “The company could have been a very different size if it had been located in Paris or Toulouse”he added.
“We never hid anything”
But, beyond its participation in the debate, with the help of open letters and interviews, the group became more actively involved, as shown by parliamentary and journalistic investigations. In annex 12 of the concession contract signed between the State and the company Atosca, in a part protected by business secrecy and entitled “A concrete ecological ambition”to which The world was able to have access, the Pierre Fabre group is cited as a future shareholder, with Gaïa Energy Systems and the concessionaire Atosca, of a joint venture which will be able to install a photovoltaic farm on 40 hectares of abandoned motorway land.
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