“We must take action”, warns the pharmaceutical companies union

“Spain and Germany are overtaking us,” warns Thierry Hulot, president of Leem, the professional union of pharmaceutical companies and president and CEO of Merck in France. He points out the excessively high taxation in France, which “confiscates 60% of profitability in the end”.

One in ten innovative medicines is produced in France compared to one in four in Germany. “It’s worrying, we need to take action”, alarms Thierry Hulot, president of Leem, the professional union of pharmaceutical companies and president and CEO of Merck in France. According to the 2024 barometer of France’s attractiveness for pharmaceutical companies published Tuesday by the union, France does not contribute sufficiently to European health sovereignty. “We should be champions in clinical research in Europe. We are only third. Spain and Germany overtake us at the post”, he specifies. This is the result, according to Thierry Hulot, of the deindustrialization of France and excessively high taxation which “confiscates 60% of the profitability at the end”, he said. “It harms investment, it harms research, it harms reindustrialization,” he says.

franceinfo: Is the French pharmaceutical sector in the process of failing? ?

Thierry Hulot: We see that investment in research has increased by six billion. In production, there are two billion investments this year, there are a few more factories, especially to strengthen existing factories. It is a sector which creates more jobs than the industry average, which has a salary level higher than the French median salary and which is almost equal between men and women. There is a base that exists, but this base is weakening and that is what is worrying. When we look at clinical research, the products of tomorrow, we should be champions in clinical research in Europe. We are only third now. Spain and Germany overtake us at the post.

“One in two clinical trials in Europe no longer take place in France. For tomorrow, this is worrying.”

Thierry Hulot, president of Leem, and CEO of Merck France

at franceinfo

It is mainly for serious illnesses such as cancer and very serious chronic pathologies. There has been progress. We have implemented early access in France which makes it possible to give ultra-innovative molecules to French patients very early. That’s 100,000 patients per year while there are 13 million patients with chronic pathologies. It remains very marginal. What worries me is that France was a drug production territory. We exported widely. It contributed to our trade balance. Ten years ago, three billion euros positive for the trade balance, that was divided by ten. Germany is doing 60 times better than us. For what ? Because we produce inexpensive, mature everyday products in France, which we export. And we import all the innovative treatments.

Is it a political choice?

This is the consequence of years of deindustrialization. In recent years, there has been a correction that has taken place. We’ve primed the pump, it’s going to take some time before it’s running at full speed. Among the innovative medicines arriving in France, one in ten is produced in France compared to one in four in Germany. It shows the effort that has to be made.

You call for reforming the taxation of “Big Pharma”. Do you think you’ll be convincing during this election period when Sanofi, for example, has a turnover of 43 billion euros?

When we look at the rest of Europe, France is the country that taxes the most with in particular five sectoral taxes, which only affect “pharma” and which confiscate, in the end, 60% of the profitability. So it harms investment, it harms research, it harms reindustrialization. France’s share of the global pharmaceutical market is approximately 3%.

“Let’s not confuse the state of health of an international group with its activity in France.”

Thierry Hulot

at franceinfo

I fight every day for French patients and I see that in France, this sector suffers from overtaxation. There is an urgent need to act. A year ago, the government launched a mission to examine the financing and regulation of medicines. The report was submitted a year ago. For a year, we have been waiting for its implementation. It was promised with a start in June. There we are at a standstill. My message is to say: what our fellow citizens expect is to be able to house themselves, feed themselves, take care of themselves.

The New Popular Front, for example, proposes to create a public medicine center with a strengthening of stock obligations. How do you react?

If all the countries in Europe or in the world start stockpiling, that is to say putting four months of products in the warehouses and not on the pharmacy shelves, we will be in this ubuesque situation where there will be stock everywhere and product nowhere. The solution is not to stock up, the solution is to have a real plan to combat shortages that we proposed 18 months ago and that the government, in February, proposed to put in place. Now we must take action. This action will be European. It is through European coordination that we will get there. It is not by putting stock in hangars that we will treat patients.