This is news that could shake up drug production in France. Biogaran, French market leader for the production of generics, could pass into the hands of Indian buyers. The laboratory, which produces 32% of generics in France, was put up for sale last year by parent company Servier, according to information from Les
Échos
, revealed in December by l'
Inné
. Despite a turnover of 750 million euros last year, the group now finds itself in difficulty. Four candidates are still in the running for its takeover, including two Indian generic producers: Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Aurobindo Pharma.
For Frédéric Bizard, president of the Institute of Health, this configuration was
“predictable since the parent company had announced that it wanted to sell its subsidiary to invest in particular in oncology or in any case in innovative specialties”
. But this potential takeover by foreign producers could undermine France's sovereignty because
“Biogaran is approximately one in six drugs that the French consume
,” noted the specialist on franceinfo this Thursday.
“This is a strategic issue for the question of its industrial footprint, since this group employs around forty producers in France. It therefore has an indirect industrial footprint since it does not have a factory but employs subcontractors
.
It is no coincidence that two out of four buyers are Indian because
“you should know that India is the pharmacy of the world,” explains Frédéric Bizard, “nearly 45% of medicines, and mainly generics, are manufactured »
in this country, at lower costs than in Europe. Facing them are two European investment funds, including BC Partners and a fund in tandem with a French industrialist. If they propose modest buyout offers, at 700 million euros, they could have other projects for the laboratory, estimates the president of the Institute of Health:
“What will these investment funds do, even if Do they seem protective? They will try to optimize their investments to sell the company afterwards. And if you want to optimize Biogaran’s profits, you have to produce elsewhere.”
For its part, the parent company Servier assures Le
Figaro “that no decision has been taken concerning Biogaran”
.
“We don't usually comment on rumors. In recent years, Servier has made a major shift in innovative treatments, particularly in oncology. As with any company, strategic reviews are regular to maximize the potential of all our activities
,” adds a company spokesperson.
“Jobs at stake”
Despite this observation, this situation is still considered
“nightmarish”
by Frédéric Bizard.
“All this is linked to the crisis in the healthcare system where there is no pilot on the plane, we have no national health strategy. We do not have a strategic component in terms of the pharmaceutical industry
,” he points out.
“We have no long-term visibility, a bureaucracy which delays access to the market and finally an accounting regulation where you only regulate prices according to the savings you want to generate, without worrying about economic viability some products. You don't need to be an economist to understand that we don't attract many people
. Two solutions are now available to the State, explains Frédéric Bizard:
“Either France nationalizes its pharmaceutical industry and says: “I don't look at my cost because it is public production”, but obviously, we are very far from that and we are incapable of putting it in place. Either you accept the market economy which needs to generate profits and you have prices which are accordingly.
For the specialist, the risk is to be
“swept out of pharmaceutical production in the next ten years if we do not wake up”
.
The political class is also calling on the government to react. Invited this Thursday morning on BFM TV, Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France regional council,
“asks the executive to oppose this sale, they have the means, until we have not a European buyer
.
“There are jobs to be had and then there is the availability of medicines
,” says the elected official. Biogaran in fact represents 240 direct jobs and more than 8,000 indirect jobs among its subcontractors. A call which seems to have been heard this Wednesday afternoon by the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, who assures that
he “has a weapon”
.
“We have a foreign investment procedure in France that we can mobilize. We can put conditions on these occasions, or even refuse them
,” underlines the minister.
“We will examine the offers to ensure that France's supply of medicines is ensured and that the industrial footprint is preserved. We will look at all the files very closely as we do for all the takeover files in the strategic sectors, obviously the medicines sector is one of them
,” assured Roland Lescure. His speech coincides with that of the president, Emmanuel Macron, who recalled last June that
“the objective”
was to
“produce in France the medicines essential to our lives”
.