French govt takes new blows over deal to sell painkiller maker to US fund

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

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

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

The subsidiary makes household-name drugs including Doliprane branded paracetamol — whose yellow boxes dominate the French market.

Under pressure, Prime Minister Michel Barnier's minority government said it had secured a 2 per cent stake in Opella for public investment bank Bpifrance and "extremely strong" guarantees against job cuts and offshoring.

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 investments in France — would help build Opella 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 Opella, said Bompard, whose LFI dominates a left alliance that is the largest opposition group against Barnier and President Emmanuel Macron.

Thomas Portes, also of the LFI, posted on X that the government had offered "no guarantees, just words".

Economy Minister Antoine Armand said a contract between CD&R, Sanofi and the government included maintaining production sites, research and development and Opella'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 buy from French suppliers.

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

"Workers are not at all reassured by the latest developments," said Johann Nicolas, a CGT union representative at Opella's Doliprane plant in Lisieux, northern France.

He added that a picket had throttled production there from around 1.3 million boxes of the drug per day to around 265,000.

The proposed protections in the deal have also failed to 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.

He vowed "painstaking" parliamentary surveillance of government action over the deal including measures to "block" the sale if ministers fall short.

Brand loyalty

Macron said last week that "the government has the instruments needed to protect France" from any unwanted "capital ownership".

Emotion over the Opella sales is closely linked to Doliprane.

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 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, among the world's top 12 healthcare companies, 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.