Sanofi plans to create a company, based in France, dedicated to the production and marketing to third parties of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), which are the active ingredients in pharmaceutical products.
The Sanofi project consists of creating a standalone company, which would combine Sanofi’s API commercial and development activities with six of its European API production sites : Brindisi (Italy), Frankfurt Chemistry (Germany), Haverhill (UK), St Aubin les Elbeuf (France), Újpest (Hungary) and Vertolaye (France).
With increasing medicine shortages that impact patient care, the new entity would contribute to supporting and securing API manufacturing, as well as supply capacities for Europe and beyond, reducing the pharmaceutical industry’s reliance on APIs sourced from the Asian region, Sanofi said in a statement.
Sanofi expects the new company to employ 3,100 skilled workers. A planned IPO on Euronext Paris would be evaluated with a decision expected by 2022, subject to market conditions.
By operating independently, the new entity plans to increase its sales to third parties and to expand its partnerships with other pharmaceutical companies in order to take advantage of new growth opportunities, Sanofi said.
Sanofi plans to establish a long-term customer relationship with the new API company and to hold a minority stake of approximately 30 percent in the new company. To provide the optimal conditions for success, Sanofi said the new company will be debt-free in order to maximize its future investment capacities.
