What does the agreement between the State and UPSA laboratories contain?

The government no longer wants a new controversy like the one that recently broke out with Doliprane. The State has just signed an agreement with the UPSA laboratory, a competitor to Sanofi

UPSA is the other major French player in paracetamol with Sanofi, known in particular thanks to its Efferalgan intended to calm pain, and Dafalgan to reduce fever. Today, 75 million boxes of Dafalgan are produced per year, compared to 100 million for Doliprane. It is a strategic player, which explains the State's desire to secure production in France.

In this unprecedented agreement, UPSA undertakes to produce two new essential drugs drawn from a list provided in 2023 by the Ministry of Health, around thirty molecules considered essential and strategic on the health and industrial levels. In exchange, the State promises to freeze the planned price reduction for paracetamol, with a two-year moratorium. You should know that the production of paracetamol is no longer profitable in France given the low level of the ex-chain price excluding tax imposed by Social Security in the name of reducing health spending.

As explained by UPSA CEO, Isabelle Van Rycke, in the economic daily The Echoes, Wednesday November 20, which reveals this information, the new drugs produced could be pregabalin, a treatment for epileptic seizures, and lamotrigine, a treatment for bipolar disorder.

The drugs in question will be produced in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) where the UPSA site manufactures more than 300 million boxes of paracetamol per year, 45% of which are intended for the French domestic market. This agreement allows the State to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to stay in France. We can see this as an action in favor of the famous reindustrialization at a time when the temptation to settle in the United States will be strong for our companies, in order to avoid the customs taxes on exports planned by Donald Trump … while taking advantage of the US president-elect's promise to lower corporate taxes.

This campaign promise is also a way for Donald Trump to siphon off our industry and weaken a passive Europe, devoid of a common strategy. A temptation to relocalize which can be all the stronger for our pharmaceutical laboratories as medicines are among the products that France exports the most to the United States.