With Bpifrance, the public investment bank, the State is mobilizing to avoid the takeover of Biogaran, the French leader in generic medicines, by foreign investors.
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Issues linked to France’s industrial and health sovereignty continue to be managed during the legislative campaign. This is the case of Biogaran, the French leader in generic medicines whose buyout race has been launched since it was put on sale in April 2024. The State intends to intervene in this matter via its financial arm, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, co-shareholder of Bpifrance, the public investment bank. She is the one in charge. Tuesday June 25, Bpifrance makes no comments, neither confirmation nor denial. The envisaged scheme is as follows: an alliance between the French public investment bank and the British fund BC Partners to face two other very interested investors, two Indian groups (Torrent and Aurobindo).
One in eight boxes of medicines is sold in French pharmacies under the name Biogaran, a subsidiary of Servier laboratories. This company is particularly strategic. We remember the controversy during the Covid crisis, France having outsourced its know-how to foreign territories to save production costs. This time, there is no question of letting this tricolor flagship slip away, which works with around forty subcontractors and employs 240 people. In 2023, Biogaran sales will exceed one billion euros.
In the aftermath of the European elections and in the midst of the campaign for the legislative elections, the presidential majority intends to score points and make it known. The takeover will not be settled in the next two weeks, but it is now that everything is at stake in the battle between potential buyers. The Indians, now practically on an equal footing with the Chinese, are buying up everything they can in the world to position themselves in the pharmaceutical and health sectors, in addition to high technologies.
This British investor has had an office in Paris since 1986 and a French boss. BC Partners notably owned Picard Surgelés. One of its latest transactions is the acquisition in 2022 of the Vendée group Havea, a specialist in food supplements.
