France bristles at painkiller maker's sale to US fund

French drugmaker Sanofi's Monday confirmation that it plans to sell a controlling stake in its over-the-counter unit to a US investment fund sparked a new political backlash, stoked by fears the deal marks a loss of sovereignty over key medications.

Paris "must block the sale" using powers to protect strategic sectors, said Manuel Bompard, a senior lawmaker in hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), in an interview with broadcaster TF1.

Politicians and unions have for weeks torn into Sanofi's proposed 16-billion-euro ($17.4 billion) deal with US-based investment fund CD&R for a controlling stake in Opella.

The subsidiary makes household-name drugs including Doliprane branded paracetamol -- whose yellow boxes are a mainstay of almost every French medicine cabinet.

Under pressure, Prime Minister Michel Barnier's minority government said it had secured a two-percent stake in Orpella for public investment bank Bpifrance and "extremely strong" guarantees against job cuts and offshoring.

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Opella employs over 11,000 workers and operates in 100 countries.

Sanofi said it is the third-largest business worldwide in the market for over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and supplements.

CD&R -- which has a battery of existing investments in France -- would help build Orpella into a "French-headquartered, global consumer healthcare champion", the pharma giant said in a statement.

'Just words'

But with memories of drug shortages during and since the Covid-19 pandemic still raw for many, critics say the defences are too weak.

A small stake "won't give the French state a say in strategic decisions" at Orpella, said Bompard, whose LFI outfit dominates a left alliance that is the largest opposition bloc against Barnier and pro-business President Emmanuel Macron.

His hard-charging LFI colleague Thomas Portes posted on X that the government had offered "no guarantees, just words".

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Economy Minister Antoine Armand said that the three-way contract between the CD&R, Sanofi and the government included maintaining production sites, research and development and Orpella's official headquarters in France, as well as investing at least 70 million euros over five years.

It covers "keeping up a minimum production volume for Opella's sensitive products in France," Armand added, including Doliprane, digestive medication Lanzor and Aspegic branded aspirin.

There would be financial penalties for closing French production sites, laying off workers or failing to keep up purchasing from French suppliers.

That includes Seqens, a company re-establishing production in France of Doliprane's active ingredient paracetamol.

The layers of protection have failed to completely win over even some in the government camp.

Monday's guarantees "do not at all indicate a commitment for the long term, whether on investment, supply or jobs", Charles Rodwell, a lawmaker in Macron's EPR party who has closely followed the case, told AFP by email.

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He vowed "painstaking" surveillance from parliament of the government's enforcement of the deal.

Should ministers fall short, lawmakers would "activate all the tools at parliament's disposition to block" the sale, Rodwell added.

Brand loyalty

Macron had attempted to quash fears last week, saying that "the government has the instruments needed to protect France" from any unwanted "capital ownership".

Emotion over the Opella takeover largely traces back to Doliprane.

Colourful boxes of the non-opioid analgesic against mild to moderate pain and fever often line entire pharmacy walls.

The drug comes in many doses -- from 100 mg for newborn babies to 1,000 mg for adults -- and in tablet, capsule, suppository and liquid forms.

It is so ubiquitous that French people call any paracetamol product Doliprane, even when made by a different manufacturer.

Sanofi, France's biggest healthcare company and among the world's top 12, says the planned spinoff is part of a strategy to focus less on over-the-counter medication and more on innovative medicines and vaccines, including for polio, influenza and meningitis.

Source: AFP