It was a promise from Emmanuel Macron at the end of the Covid crisis: to restore France's sovereignty in the manufacturing and supply of medicines. Four years later, this policy seems to have failed. Doliprane will soon be sold in part to an American fund and, this summer, the French champion of the generic drug Biogaran was almost sold to Indian laboratories.
India, in fact, is increasingly eyeing the French market. Example in this factory, at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, very close to the border with Pakistan. “Welcome to Jackson Laboratories”says Govind Chourasia, the manager of the site, which is one of 10,000 drug and vaccine manufacturing factories in India. Jackson Laboratories produces “paracetamol, antibiotics, corticosteroids, antiepileptics…”i.e. a total of 300 kinds of generic, everyday medications.
As the visit with Govind Chourasia progresses, we come across machines that make boxes of medicine with inscriptions in Spanish, but also in Russian, English and French. “Yes, that’s Frenchindicates the manager, 70% of our production is intended for export.” “It's not for Francespecifies Sahil Samra, director of Jackson laboratories, but for French-speaking African countries.”
If it is not yet for France, the director does not hide his ambitions. “Exporting to France is one of our objectiveshe explains. For this, European certification is required. We therefore plan to expand by building a new factory which will manufacture medicines to European standards.” Long mocked, the quality of the Indian pharmaceutical industry is now real. Thus, 10% of the country's factories are today approved by the FDA (Food and drug administration)the American authority renowned for imposing some of the strictest standards. “We produce in large quantities, the quality of our products is improving. We are already almost everywhere in the world”says Sahil Samra with confidence.
“It is only a matter of time before all developed countries buy Indian pharmaceutical products… And France too.”
Sahil Samra, director of Jackson Laboratoriesat franceinfo
The pharmaceutical industry is now one of the fastest growing sectors in India. About one in five generic drugs and half of the vaccines sold worldwide are made in India.
The Indian pharmacy has become essential, explains Jitin Chawla, recruitment specialist: “I gave a lecture to 200 students. I advised them to move towards the pharmaceutical industry, which today is worth 42 billion dollars. And according to forecasts, it will be three times more in 2030. The sector employs 600,000 people, even double, if we count indirect jobs. And in the next two years, pharmaceutical manufacturers plan to hire 130,000 people.
Labor is cheap in the world's most populous country, with employees paid 300 to 400 euros per month, according to Jitin Chawla. With equal qualifications, it is almost 10 times less than in the United States or Europe. The recipe for Indian success is also the government, which has made it possible, thanks to tax incentives, to develop an ecosystem and create pharmaceutical giants.
This explains this result, explains Sahil Samra, of Jackson laboratories: “We are the most competitive. Our lab won a contract to supply Mauritius with Omeprazole capsules for heartburn.”
“We can produce and sell an Omeoprazole capsule for only 10 euro cents.”
Sahil Samra, Jackson Laboratoriesat franceinfo
This cost of 10 cents is almost half as expensive as that of French competitors. And India is already starting to weave its web in France. In Gurgaon, the business district of New Delhi, the capital, Umair Ul Haque works at the consultancy firm Dezan Shira and Associates. “The French market constitutes only 2.6% of exports of Indian medicines and vaccineshe describes. However, this year, India exported around 240 products to France. millions of dollars worth of drugs. That's already a lot, and it's growing all the time.”
Without knowing it, Indian medicines are already in our medicine cabinets, for example, those from the generic manufacturer Arrow, based in Lyon: a subsidiary of the Indian group Aurobindo. This summer, Aurobindo was one of the two Indian candidates for the takeover of Biogaran, the French champion of generics. The sale was ultimately canceled, but the Pierre Fabre laboratory is in the process of selling one of its research sites in Haute-Savoie to an Indian group.
India does not just want to export its medicines to France, it also plans to buy some of our sites in France, explains Umair Ul Haque: “I understand that the French are reluctant to lose control of a company, but the goal of the Indians is not to make you lose your sovereigntyhe assures. By purchasing French groups, we position ourselves as commercial partners and investors.
“It’s a way to strengthen your industry and make it prosper.”
Umair Ul Haque, du cabinet de conseil Dezan Shira and Associatesfranceinfo
This market logic will inevitably prevail over French manufacturers in the long term, predicts Sahil Samra, director of Jackson laboratories: “If you are competitive, if you produce quality, then you survive, and not the others. That's the game.” Partnership or inevitable loss of sovereignty of France, Indian manufacturers have in any case already made a significant breakthrough on the medicine market with our Belgian and English neighbors.
