- Neymar returns for Al Hilal in Al Ain thriller
- TGL set for January start as Woods-McIlroy might meet Jan. 27
- US Grand Prix - three things we learned
- Welsh rugby's future more important to Gatland than saving his job
- Venezuela arrests ex-oil minister accused of US links
- President Biya lands back in Cameroon after health rumours
- Watson out for NFL season with ruptured Achilles tendon
- Disney expects to name Iger's successor in early 2026
- Trump tours storm damage, Harris woos moderates as US vote looms
- Power restored to half of Cuban capital after nationwide blackout: state media
- Emery wants to 'break barriers' at transformed Aston Villa
- Hezbollah-linked financial firm an economic lifeline for Lebanese
- London trial probes 2015 Brazil mine disaster
- Police in Mozambique disperse vote protest
- Ancelotti wants goals over pressing from Madrid star Mbappe
- Major crypto, diamond fraud trial opens in France
- Electricity restored to 50% of Havana after nationwide blackout: Cuba state media
- Stock markets slide, oil jumps as China cuts rates
- How much aid is getting into Gaza?
- King Charles caps Australia trip with Opera House bash
- England's Buttler out of West Indies ODI series
- Moldova president hails EU referendum win after Russia meddling claims
- French govt takes new blows over deal to sell painkiller maker to US fund
- US wants end to Israel-Hezbollah war 'as soon as possible'
- Van Dijk talking to 'right people' over Liverpool contract
- Vietnam's top leader pushes anti-corruption fight
- Arteta urges Arsenal to use Bournemouth 'pain' against Shakhtar
- Rabada fastest to 300th Test wicket, as Bangladesh all out for 106
- Stock markets mostly fall, oil jumps as China cuts rates
- France bristles at painkiller maker's sale to US fund
- Moldova narrowly votes for EU membership amid fraud claims
- Erdogan rival Gulen dies in exile at 83
- Man Utd's Ten Hag relishing Europa League clash with Mourinho
- Amnesty says migrant workers exploited at Carrefour Saudi stores
- Fethullah Gulen: ex-Erdogan ally who became public enemy number one
- Rabada takes 300th Test wicket as Bangladesh all out for 106
- Seoul demands 'immediate withdrawal' of North Korean troops in Russia
- WHO to evacuate 1,000 Gazan women, children for urgent medical care
- Israel bombs Hezbollah-linked finance group in Lebanon
- Erdogan's rival Fetullah Gulen dies in exile aged 83
- Gauff-led USA pitted with Canada at season-opening United Cup
- Cuban leader warns against unrest over nationwide blackout
- Asian markets mixed as traders digest China rate cut
- Sanofi pursues sale of painkiller after political controversy
- Trump heads to hurricane-hit N. Carolina, Harris in swing state push
- Rabada takes 300th wicket as Bangladesh stumble to 60-6 at lunch
- Alpacas, hecklers and climate warnings: King Charles visits Australia's capital
- Moldova EU vote too close to call, president blames 'foreign interference'
- Sartorially suave alpaca sneezes on King Charles
- In a first, France welcomes Russian army deserters
RIO | -0.8% | 64.84 | $ | |
RBGPF | 1% | 61.11 | $ | |
NGG | -1.49% | 67.001 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.16% | 24.74 | $ | |
RELX | -1.11% | 47.639 | $ | |
BTI | -0.63% | 34.285 | $ | |
GSK | -0.9% | 38.205 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.68% | 7.4 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.59% | 24.894 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.99 | $ | |
VOD | -1.09% | 9.655 | $ | |
BCC | -1.91% | 139.08 | $ | |
AZN | -0.73% | 77.695 | $ | |
JRI | -0.46% | 13.16 | $ | |
BCE | -0.28% | 33.445 | $ | |
BP | 0.56% | 31.505 | $ |
French govt takes new blows over deal to sell painkiller maker to US fund
French drugmaker Sanofi's confirmation that it will sell a ctrolling 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) party, 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 two-percent 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 re-establishing 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.
burs-jh-tgb/tw
F.Bennett--AMWN