Sanofi Bets Big in Europe

Investments in its home country and in Germany demonstrate French biopharma giant Sanofi’s commitment to European production.

Even before its newly announced investment, Sanofi already employs 6,600 at its BioCampus in the Höchst Industrial Park in Frankfurt, Germany.

Photo by C. Stoll courtesy of Sanofi

by ADAM BRUNS

n May Sanofi announced an investment of more than €1 billion to create new bioproduction capacity at its sites in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val de Marne), Le Trait (Seine-Maritime) and Lyon Gerland (Rhône). “This plan brings to more than €3.5 billion the amount committed by Sanofi since the COVID-19 pandemic in major projects to keep production of medicines and vaccines in France for patients around the world,” the company stated.

The projects include a 350-job, €1 billion investment in a new facility in Vitry-sur-Seine that will double the site’s monoclonal antibody production capacity; €100 million to develop new capacity for biologics formulation, filling, device assembly and packaging in Le Trait, where the project will support 150 jobs; and €10 million to locate the production of TZield, a biologic for type 1 diabetes, in Lyon Gerland. Until now, the product, which Sanofi acquired in April 2023, has been manufactured outside of Europe.

The company said it carries out more than 60% of its global production in the EU (compared to an average of 80% in the pharmaceutical industry) and sources only 5% of its active ingredients in Asia. “Thanks to this industrial footprint, Sanofi’s contribution to France’s trade balance amounted to more than €13 billion in 2023,” the announcement stated.

“With these unprecedented industrial investments,” said Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson, “we remain true to our history by once again choosing France to produce these future medicines and make them available to patients around the world. France is, and always will be, at the heart of Sanofi’s strategy.”

If France is the heart, then Germany looks to be at least a major artery. The company on August 1 confirmed a €1.3 billion investment to expand insulin production by constructing 36,000 sq. m. (more than 387,500 sq. ft.) at its BioCampus site in Frankfurt am Main. Germany Trade & Invest said the project is being supported by the German national government and the government of the State of Hesse, pending EU approval.

“Our planned investment underscores the central role played by the Frankfurt BioCampus in strengthening the resilience of global insulin production,” said Heidrun Irschik-Hadjieff, chairman of Sanofi in Germany. “The strong support of both the national and regional German governments is a powerful signal for the biopharmaceutical industry.”

In 2023, the German national government adopted an official pharma strategy bolstering support for companies, streamlining approval procedures and improving conditions for R&D, says Germany Trade & Invest. In addition to Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Company is building a new €2.3-billion German production facility, and billion-euro investments are also on the way from Japan’s Daiichi-Sankyo and Swiss giant Roche.

Adam Bruns
Editor in Chief of Site Selection magazine

Adam Bruns is editor in chief and head of publications for Site Selection, and before that has served as managing editor beginning in February 2002. In the course of reporting hundreds of stories for Site Selection, Adam has visited companies and communities around the globe. A St. Louis native who grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, Adam is a 1986 alumnus of Knox College, and resided in Chicago; Midcoast Maine; Savannah, Georgia; and Lexington, Kentucky, before settling in the Greater Atlanta community of Peachtree Corners, where he lives with his wife and daughter.