File: A tablet of paracetamol Doliprane pills. AFP/Fred Tanneau
PARIS - The sale of a French drugmaker to an American group is likely to now go ahead after French Economy Minister Antoine Armand said that he had received "guarantees".
"Our demands on employment, production and investment will be respected," Armand said on X, apparently authorising the sale of Sanofi's over-the-counter drug unit Opella to US investment fund CD&R.
The proposed sale had turned into a major political issue in France because Opella's products include painkiller Doliprane, the best-selling medicine in France, and with memories still fresh of shortages during the Covid pandemic.
Doliprane is the brand under which Opella sells paracetamol, a non-opioid analgesic to ease mild to moderate pain and fever.
Armand added that France's state investment arm Bpifrance "will be a shareholder to keep watch", warning of "heavy financial penalties" if promises are not kept.
Politicians and unions reacted strongly after Sanofi said earlier this month that it was in talks with New York-based private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) to sell a 50-percent controlling stake in Opella, which also makes other consumer healthcare products.
Even President Emmanuel Macron had gotten involved in the debate fed by a perceived "loss of sovereignty" if the medicine fell into foreign hands.
Sanofi said the planned sale was part of its strategy to focus less on over-the-counter medication and more on innovative medicines and vaccines, including for polio, influenza and meningitis.
But Sanofi, one of the world's 12 largest pharmaceutical companies, had not counted on how attached the French are to Doliprane, whose yellow boxes occupy shelf after shelf in French pharmacies, and whose name is used to refer to any paracetamol product.
Armand's post indicates that another offer made last Thursday by French investment group PAI Partners was not accepted.
Unions claim that the sale to an American group would put Opella's 1,700 jobs in France at risk, while Sanofi insists the sale would help Opella expand by bringing in a partner willing to invest in a market that has more in common with the consumer goods than pure pharmaceutical drugs.