politicians from all sides ask the government to prevent the sale of the Sanofi subsidiary to an American fund

2024-10-11 14:56:00
A box of Doliprane in a pharmacy in Colomiers, in the southwest of France, March 23, 2023. VALENTINE CHAPUIS / AFP

From both left and right, parliamentarians from several political parties urged the government on Friday October 10 to block the sale of Opella, a Sanofi subsidiary responsible in particular for the manufacture of Doliprane.

Doliprane, the best-selling drug in France, is about to pass under the American flag, Sanofi having announced on Friday that it was negotiating with the CD&R investment fund to transfer control of its subsidiary to it.

Several party leaders immediately took to their social networks. “The cut-up sale of France continues”, Jordan Bardella (National gathering). “No lessons will have been learned from Covid”, noted Marine Tondelier (Ecologists). That’s it “a shame” et “another symbol of our loss of sovereignty”, reacted Fabien Roussel (Communist Party).

Parliamentarians from all sides, from the left to elected officials supporting the government, also called on the executive to oppose it. The operation “poses a very worrying issue for our national security”write around sixty deputies from the groups Ensemble pour la République (ex-Renaissance), Horizons, Démocrate (ex-MoDem) and Republican Right (ex-LR), at the initiative of the deputy Charles Rodwell (EPR). “Doliprane is an essential medicine for the health of millions of French people”and “success for the Sanofi group”and the operation would go against the “restoration of French sovereignty in health matters”they warn in a joint letter to the Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand.

They ask the government to invoke an article of the monetary and financial code allowing it to subject foreign investments in sensitive sectors to prior authorization.

Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers The Doliprane passes under the American flag

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“Health sovereignty”

Earlier on Friday, it was the deputies of La France insoumise who asked the government to block the transfer. “These people are ruining the champagne by deindustrializing France”, they denouncedevoking “a sale worth 15 billion euros… and 7 billion in gifts to shareholders in perspective”.

The head of the Republican Right group, Laurent Wauquiez, and the general rapporteur of the Social Security budget, Yannick Neuder (DR), also wrote to the minister with the same request: “It is essential that the State acts to protect our industrial flagships and ensure France’s health sovereignty. »

“While paracetamol was already unobtainable a few months ago… are they abandoning it? Neither good for our health nor good for our jobs”, denounced on X the boss of the socialist deputies, Boris Vallaudcalling on the government to “react”.

According to consistent sources, the valuation, unspecified, would approach 16 billion euros. Opella claims to be number three in the world in non-prescription medicines, vitamins, minerals and food supplements. This subsidiary oversees around a hundred brands in addition to Doliprane, such as Mucosolvan, Maalox and Novanuit.

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The ministers of the economy, Antoine Armand, and of industry, Marc Ferracci, asked on Friday for commitments from Sanofi and the future buyer to guarantee the “maintaining the headquarters and decision-making centers on the national territory” et “Opella’s French industrial footprint”.

Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Paracetamol made in France, an issue of sovereignty

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