DECRYPTION. Why the sale of Doliprane is becoming a state affair

On paper, everything seems simple and basic. A large private French group wants to separate from one of its subsidiaries, which develops non-strategic products, in order to invest in very promising new markets as part of a new strategy, which should also make it possible to better remunerate its shareholders who feel badly treated. The company even found, after a long process, a foreign candidate to buy its subsidiary. This scenario seems to have an unstoppable capitalistic logic to end with a happy ending…

The Doliprane symbol misvalued by the government

But when the group in question is the French pharmaceutical laboratory Sanofi, which received more than a billion euros of public money as part of the research tax credit, that among the products of the subsidiary, in this case Opella, includes Doliprane, the emblematic drug preferred by the French, that the candidate for buyout is an American investment fund, CD & R, specializing in LBO operations (leveraged acquisition, company buyout by debt), that hundreds of jobs are at stake in two Doliprane production sites – in Compiègne and Lisieux – and that this sale thwarts Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to relocate the production of paracetamol to France, all at a time when questions of sovereignty industrial and health are a major concern of the country, we clearly feel that the ideal scenario has all the ingredients to turn into a matter of state.

Having failed to appreciate the full symbolic weight of this issue, the government finds itself today having to play the role of firefighter to avoid being accused of selling out the country’s interests.

However, the affair did not begin on October 11, when Sanofi announced that it was negotiating with CD & R in order to potentially sell it 50% of Opella, which houses, in addition to Doliprane, around a hundred brands of non-prescription products in the world. The laboratory announced in October 2023 its intention to separate from Opella, acquired twenty years ago during the absorption of Aventis. “We told Sanofi that we did not want them to sell Opella. Sanofi nevertheless maintained its decision to sell,” commented a source at Bercy cited in Le Monde at the end of July. “Our project is in no way synonymous with the end of Doliprane in France,” François-Xavier Roger, financial director of Sanofi, reassured François-Xavier Roger, during the presentation of the group’s half-year results on July 25.

Outcry from left to right

But when Sanofi confirmed on Friday October 11 that the process of selling Opella had begun with CD & R, the news triggered a public outcry and the matter quickly became political. From left to right, voices are being raised to ask the government to block the sale, which it can do by activating the “Montebourg decrees” which make it possible to block foreign investment in France in a strategic company. “The President ensures thatEmily in Paris (the Netflix series, editor’s note) remains in France. I would prefer that he ensures that Doliprane remains in France”, tackles the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure.

62 deputies from the groups Ensemble pour la République (EPR), MoDem, Horizons, and the Republican Right (ex-LR) co-sign a letter addressed to Bercy in which they denounce “the passivity of the State” and recall that They “mobilized already in the spring against the sale of Biogaran”, a subsidiary of Servier laboratories.

Ministers cannot convince

Faced with this outcry, Industry Minister Marc Ferracci promised on Sunday October 13 to extract “solid, written commitments” from the Americans. While a note from Bercy pleads for letting the operation take place with strict conditions, he went on Monday with his Economy colleague Antoine Armand to the Lisieux factory to try to reassure the 250 employees. In vain.

The prospect of the arrival of a foreign financial actor in the capital of Opella worries all the way to the top of the State, but the government, which always displays its desire for reindustrialization, does not want to scare off foreign investors and therefore remains favorable to the sale, even if Sanofi indicated that it did not intend to retain its stake in Opella “for ten years…” The Minister of Industry Marc Ferracci also favors “protecting the health of the French”, “to guarantee health sovereignty” and “conserve jobs” rather than favoring a takeover by a French player like PAI, an unsuccessful candidate.

“France would make a serious mistake” believes Montebourg

The criticism continues and grows. Former minister Arnaud Montebourg comes out of retirement. “Already dependent on foreign medicines, France would make a serious mistake by giving up Doliprane,” he believes. The government is multiplying declarations and pledges of goodwill, asking for an “exhaustive assessment” of the public aid that Sanofi – which has been unable to develop an anti-Covid vaccine – has received over the last ten years and confirms the “possible presence of ‘State on the Board of Directors’ of Opella. Nothing helps.

“This government is committed to maintaining Doliprane in France”, assured Wednesday the Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand, adding that “maintaining employment is the absolute priority and will not be negotiable”. The unions don’t believe it and fear a “social breakdown” in Opella’s 1,700 jobs on French soil. “We are sacrificing Doliprane and French health sovereignty on the altar of finance,” laments Humberto de Sousa, CFDT coordinator of the group, as strikes and walkouts take hold on the sites. Final twist on Thursday with PAI which improves its offer, but outside the deadline, and arouses the astonishment of Sanofi.

In one week, with the Doliprane affair, the Barnier government, already mobilized on the thorny Budget 2025, finds itself confronted with its first explosive file…