The laboratory, which produces 32% ofGenerics in France, was put up for sale last year by parent company Servier. 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. 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, Frédéric Bizard. But this potential takeover by foreign producers could undermine France's sovereignty because nearly 45% of medicines, and mainly generics, are manufactured in India, at lower costs than in Europe, says Bizard, a specialist on Franceinfo. The political class is also calling on the government to react. The risk is to beswept out of pharmaceutical production in the next ten years if we do not wake up. Biogaran, in fact, represents 240 direct jobs and more than 8,000 indirect jobs among its subcontractors. The Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, assures that France “has a weapon” to stop the sale of the company. The president of the Hauts-de-France regional council, Xavier Bertrand, has asked the executive to oppose the sale until we have not a European buyer for Biogarans. The French government has said it will look at all the files very closely as it does for all the takeover files in the strategic sectors, obviously the medicines sector is one of them. He added that France will examine the offers to ensure that France's supply of medicines is ensured and that the industrial footprint is preserved.