Exit medicines produced in Asia, Ipsophène now wishes to produce
“100% French”
paracetamol , in Toulouse.
Until this week, no representative had spoken since the project was announced last July by the Occitanie Regional Council.
Jean Boher, CEO of the company, told our colleagues at
La Dépêche
on Monday that
“there was no delay compared to the initial schedule”
.
See you in the second half of 2025, where the first molecules of paracetamol should leave the factory.
To market them, however, it will be necessary to wait for the validation of the European Pharmacopoeia Certificate (CEP) which depends on the ramp-up of production.
Ipsophène thinks big and plans to produce 4,000 tonnes of paracetamol per year, or 40% of French production and 7% of European consumption.
All, only with French or European materials.
“We have already concluded agreements with various pharmaceutical laboratories to sell our production.
They are very interested in our industrial process, which is much less polluting than that of the competition
,” says the group's CEO.
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“An invaluable asset”
If the environmental aspect is important, the price remains essential:
“Our cost price will also allow us to remain competitive.
More fundamentally, we will always have the capacity to produce paracetamol even if there is any disruption in the supply chain from Asia because all our raw materials will be of French or European origin.
In anticipation of new major crises, it is an invaluable asset
,” assures Jean Boher.
This first “100% French”
paracetamol factory
has a cost and represents 28 million euros, 15% of which is financed by the region, or 4.2 million euros.
It is located in a disused building of the Oncopole, a cancerology campus in Toulouse.
To produce the molecules, Ipsophène plans to hire between 35 and 40 permanent employees by the end of the year.
“The plant director, Maxime Lefebvre, began his mission in July 2023, he is a specialist in pharmaceutical chemistry, with notable experience in continuous processes
,” reports Jean Boher.
The plant director was notably a chemical process engineer at Servier, a support engineer at Pfizer, before returning to Servier as pharmaceutical plant director.
To lend him a helping hand,
“the team was recently completed in order to better supervise the site and strengthen administrative capacities”
, underlines Jean Boher.