For health sovereignty – Liberation

Still no vaccine in the country of Pasteur. The situation could appear absurd if it were not the result of a recurring and renewed withdrawal of Sanofi management from research. In ten years, there have been no less than four successive social plans, leading to the elimination of more than half of the positions in Research and Development, while at the same time the group has benefited from one and a half billion euros Research tax credit (CIR). These restructuring plans, which lead to site closures and the loss of several thousand jobs, have dramatic social consequences. In 2020, a new plan to cut 1,700 jobs in Europe has been announced, including a thousand in France. This vast layoff plan comes as the group is preparing to pay nearly 4 billion euros in dividends to its shareholders, after having achieved a net profit up 340% for the year 2020. In total, the number jobs lost in ten years amount to nearly 5,000, not counting the increasing outsourcing of certain activities. These eloquent figures highlight a strategy of the giant of the French pharmaceutical industry, turned towards profit more than towards the general interest. In a context of unprecedented health crisis, the situation of the Research & Development branch is particularly worrying. Today, nearly 400 jobs must be eliminated, and a new site, that of Strasbourg, closed. The race for profits, hyperspecialization and increased recourse to subcontracting have resulted in an undeniable weakening and abandonment of entire sections of the field of medical research.

The government’s management of the health crisis made it possible to highlight the absence of national sovereignty in terms not only of the production of drugs, but also of tests, protective equipment or medical oxygen necessary for resuscitation. . Successive relocations have excluded from French and European territory the manufacture of a very large number of essential molecules. Awareness in society of the public health issues linked to health sovereignty is growing. The President of the Republic himself affirmed it, on March 17, 2020, during a televised address: “What this pandemic reveals is that there are goods and services that must be placed outside the market economy.” Why is it not already applying it in the field of pharmaceutical industry and drug production? The promises of a world after, where the general interest would gain the upper hand, gave way to the reality of an unrestrained commodification of the pharmaceutical industry.

The State must be able to regain control of this highly strategic sector, today essentially guided by a logic of profitability, which favors the development of innovative drugs which are sold at high prices to guarantee high profits. These interests are not compatible with a public health policy that meets human needs. Our sovereignty and our ability to cope with an epidemic which has already claimed more than 85,000 lives in France are at stake. While the management of Sanofi is deliberately destroying the French industrial flagship in terms of vaccines and drugs, the government must act. Today we are paying the consequences of this process of commodification.

It is time that priority be given to issues of public health, and not of immediate profits and profitability. The Covid-19 pandemic has also highlighted the scandal of very significant drug shortages. However, the state does not have control over the production of drugs. In addition, the majority of molecules are currently manufactured outside our territory. The solution must and can come from the public authorities. Health is a public good that the State must protect from the logic of profitability. To regain our health sovereignty and thus face the challenges of public health, we call for the creation of a public drug pole at national and European level. Medicines must be considered as a common good, the production of which is in the general interest. We must regain control of research and the production of drugs. Without it, any ambitious health policy will come up against the headwinds of a profit-making pharmaceutical industry.

Tribune initiated by: Laurence COHEN, Senator of Val-de-Marne, Raymonde PONCET MONGE, Senator of the Rhône, Sophie TAILLE-POLIAN, Senator of Val-de-Marne.

Signatories: Cathy APOURCEAU-POLY, Senator of Pas-de-Calais, Alain BRUNEEL, Deputy from the North, Remi CARDON, Senator of the Somme, Marie-Arlette CARLOTTI, Senator of Bouches-du-Rhône, Alexis CORBIÈRE, Deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, Ronan DANTEC, Senator of Loire-Atlantique, Monique DE MARCO, Senator of Gironde, Elsa FALCILLON, Deputy for Hauts-de-Seine, Jacques FERNIQUE, Senator of Bas-Rhin, Fabien GAY, Senator of Seine-Saint-Denis, Guillaume GONTARD, Senator of Isère, Michelle GREAUME, Senator of the North, Patrice JOLY, Senator of Nièvre, Régis JUANICO, Deputy for the Loire, Sébastien JUMEL, Deputy for Seine-Maritime, Joël LABBE, Senator of Morbihan, Bastien LACHAUD, Deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, Pierre LAURENT, Senator of Paris, Marie-Noëlle LIENEMANN, Senator of Paris, Jean-Luc MÉLENCHON, Member of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Philippe NAILLET, Member of Parliament for Reunion, Mathilde PANOT, Member of Parliament for Val-de-Marne, Angela PREVILLE, Senator of Lot, Loïc PRUD’HOMME, Member of Parliament for Gironde, Muriel RESSIGUIER, Member of Parliament for Hérault, Daniel SALMON, Senator of Ille-et-Vilaine, Isabelle SANTIAGO, Member of Parliament for Val-de-Marne, Pascal SAVOLDELLI, Senator of Val-de-Marne, Bénédicte TAURINE, Member of Parliament for Ariège, Jean-Claude TISSOT, Senator of the Loire, Marie-Claude VARAILLAS, Senator of Dordogne.

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