Several pharmaceutical companies have recently pledged billions in investments in Germany. Now Frankfurt can apparently look forward to new money from France. It is for an important drug.
According to a media report, the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi wants to invest up to 1.5 billion euros in its insulin production in Frankfurt. The company is planning to build a new production facility at its site in the Höchst district and could invest between 1.3 and 1.5 billion euros in this, reports the “Handelsblatt” newspaper, citing sources close to the federal government. Sanofi already operates an insulin production facility in Höchst. This is to make way for a new plant as part of the switch to more modern technology. A final decision has not yet been made, but preparations for construction work in Höchst are already underway, it was said.
According to a spokesman, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is pleased about the investment. “The Chancellor is also very pleased about this development,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in Berlin. He said he was not surprised by this.
Hessian state government intervenes
The Hessian state government said that Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) and Economics Minister Kaweh Mansoori (SPD) had been in talks with Sanofi for months about a possible settlement. “Financial participation by the state is fundamentally conceivable in order to secure and create jobs, leverage investments and provide incentives for innovation,” said a government spokesman.
Amid the debate about the weakening economic location and the often criticized shortage of important medicines, a billion-euro investment by Sanofi in Frankfurt would be a positive signal for Germany. Recently, several foreign pharmaceutical companies have promised large investments in this country: The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is investing 2.3 billion euros in the construction of a production facility in Alzey in Rhineland-Palatinate. Daiichi-Sankyo from Japan, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche and the Darmstadt-based DAX group Merck have also decided to invest billions in Germany.
Good news for Germany, a struggling business location
When asked, Sanofi did not want to confirm the Handelsblatt report. The company is “constantly examining investment opportunities” to improve the resilience of its supply chains worldwide and to ensure the supply of important medicines and vaccines to patients, it said.
The Frankfurt site is one of Sanofi’s largest factories, with around 6,600 employees. More than 86,000 people work for the company worldwide. Recently, Sanofi was said to have considered moving insulin production from Frankfurt to France, reports Handelsblatt. These plans are apparently off the table.
Source: Stern
