As Sanofi moves forward with talks to potentially sell a 50% stake its consumer health unit Opella, fears of job cuts and drug shortages have prompted a call for industrial action in the company’s home country of France.
French unions have urged Sanofi employees to strike from the start of their shifts Thursday in a move covering “the whole of France,” Fabien Mallet, representative of the country’s General Confederation of Labour (CGT), told Reuters, which first reported on the situation.
The call to action comes from CGT and the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), which represent the largest trade organizations within Sanofi, according to the news outlet.
Word of the strikes comes less than a week after Sanofi revealed that it had entered talks with U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) to potentially sell a 50% controlling stake in Opella, which could be valued at 15 billion euros. Sanofi first telegraphed plans for a potential consumer health separation last October.
Those who oppose the deal have raised concerns about the preservation of production assets—especially around the over-the-counter painkiller Doliprane, which is France’s top-selling drug—and the potential for mass layoffs should the sale go through, according to Reuters.
But, to hear Sanofi tell it, “None of the options under consideration involve reducing Opella’s industrial footprint in France.”
“On the contrary, both sites and their employees are so strategic for Opella’s growth plans that it is absurd to imagine for a second that their future would not be guaranteed,” a Sanofi spokesperson told Fierce Pharma over email.
Sanofi’s decision to retain a 50% stake in the company, should the separation occur, provides a “guarantee” that Opella’s future operations will be “anchored in France in the long term,” the spokesperson added.
The company plans to embark upon an “open and constructive social dialogue” to answer any questions or concerns around the proposed deal, Sanofi's spokesperson said.
Earlier this week, Reuters noted in a separate report that French officials, including the country’s economy minister Antoine Armond and industry minister Marc Ferracci, laid out strict conditions for the deal to go through, including job protections, drug volume guarantees and France-based R&D and supply commitments.
Meanwhile, France’s ability to block the potential transaction is still “absolutely on the table,” Ferracci told French public radio channel France Inter on Tuesday, as reported by Euronews.
While Sanofi is now engaging in talks with CD&R, the consumer health sale is far from a done deal at this point.
Sanofi last week said it would offer updates on the talks “in due course,” and previously told Fierce Pharma it was “keeping all options open, including a listing, and a sale, to maximize value creation for all our stakeholders.”
Opella, which generated 5.2 billion euros in 2023, employs more than 11,000 people worldwide. Aside from Doliprane, the company is known for popular household brands like the allergy med Allegra, Icy Hot for muscle pain, Gold Bond powder and Selsun Blue shampoo.
The French strike over Opella is at least the second time in as many years that Sanofi has faced the threat of industrial action.
Back in the summer of 2022, Korea Biomedical Review reported that unionized Sanofi workers in South Korea had threatened to strike after failing to reach an agreement on a new wage plan with local Sanofi management.
Similar events have occurred at GSK and Pfizer, where workers have threatened to temporarily withhold labor in recent years over pay disputes tied to inflation and increasing living costs around the globe.