Announced with great fanfare by Emmanuel Macron in June 2023, the strategy to relocalize drug production in France took a step forward on Monday January 6. At least that's what the government hopes. Traveling to the manufacturer of active ingredients Euroapi, in Puy-de-Dôme, the Minister of Health, Yannick Neuder, and his industry counterpart, Marc Ferracci, recorded nearly 120 million euros of investments from seven companies in the pharmaceutical industry.
This aid is part of the France 2030 plan. It concerns a handful of companies which intervene at different times in the production process of “essential medicines” : from the development of the active ingredient to the finalization of the product. In 2023, seven other companies including Euroapi had already received public support. These projects, associated with those supported by France Relance, aim, according to the government, to ” to strenghten “ the production of 42 “essential medicines” whose supply depends on extra-European imports.
Health sovereignty
The issue? Allow France to improve its health sovereignty, at a time when many medicines are regularly in short supply. «Shortage risks remain highconfirms Nathalie Coutinet, health economist. The context has not changed.» At the start of 2024, the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) indicated that it had identified 4,925 stock shortages or risks of stock shortages over the previous year, an increase of 30% compared to 2022.
Beyond the risks of shortage, the question of health sovereignty also refers to independence from abroad. According to the government, 40% of medicines marketed in the European Union come from third countries, and 60 to 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in their manufacture are produced in China and India.
Two paracetamol factories
Among the companies set to receive public funding is the Ipsophene factory. Based in Toulouse, it manufactures the active ingredient of paracetamol, this painkiller molecule regularly affected by the risk of stock shortages and particularly popular with the French. 14 million euros are being granted to it as part of France 2030 to increase its production until it can meet 38% of French demand, according to the government.
Already in 2021, the State invested in the relocation of the production of the active ingredient of paracetamol by supporting the construction of the Seqens factory, in Roussillon (Isère). This should be operational by 2026 and capable of producing 10,000 tonnes of paracetamol each year. For comparison, the Ipsophene factory will be able to produce 3,400.
Oncology products
Other drugs or molecules are affected. This is the case for oncological products in which the Lille firm Delpharm, with 13.7 million euros, specializes. The largest investment – 48.7 million – concerns the Angevin Zach System, producer of different active ingredients. “It’s about giving our industrialists the ability to fight on equal terms with their non-European competitors,” summarizes Marc Ferracci, quoted by the press release.
Whether it is the France 2030 or France Relance projects, public support for the relocation of drug production amounts to around 50 million euros, which must result in 300 million investments. In return, companies have committed “on securing supplies to the French market”.
Relocate “the entire chain”
But in detail, doubts remain about these guarantees. «The effects of these investments are difficult to assess since we do not know precisely the volumes that will be produced by the different factories.», nuance Nathalie Coutinet, who also points to a lack of European coordination in this area. «The shortages are global. However, there is no European relocation policy that would make it possible to coordinate the production of molecules between countries. she emphasizes.
Above all, state subsidizing of different specialized companies, each in a stage of production, requires ensuring that the entire chain is relocated. And not just the production of the active ingredient or the finalization of the medicine, in which case health sovereignty would be incomplete. For Nathalie Coutinet, “this is the limit of this policy focused on actors rather than molecules”.
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France 2030, 54 billion to finance innovation
Led by the General Secretariat for Investment to the Prime Ministerin conjunction with the ministries, France 2030: aims to sustainably transform key sectors of the economy (energy, automobiles, health, aeronautics, etc.) through technological and industrial innovation.
The program supports the entire innovation lifecyclefrom fundamental research to the production of a new product or service and to this end brings together companies, schools, universities and research organizations.
It plans to invest 54 billion euros over five yearswith two transversal objectives: devoting 50% of its expenditure to the decarbonization of the economy, and 50% to emerging players, drivers of innovation without expenditure unfavorable to the environment.
According to the government, nearly 35 billion euros have already been committed to support more than 4,700 projectswhich made it possible to create or maintain nearly 93,000 jobs.
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