French industry minister Lescure welcomes Italian pharma company Chiesi’s investment in France

French delegate Minister of Industry Roland Lescure visited the production site of Italian pharmaceutical group Chiesi in the Loir-et-Cher area on Tuesday (May 14), after the company announced an investment of €10 million.

The Chiesi laboratory announced the new financial investment of millions of euros and the creation of 100 jobs in France, at the Choose France summit on Monday (May 13), which brings together French and international leaders, to promote investment in France since 2018.

“We’ve got talent. We have land. We have a policy to encourage industrialisation. We tick all the boxes, and as a result, industrialists are following our lead,” said Roland Lescure during his visit to the production site.

The creation of 100 jobs by Chiesi concerns the La Chaussée-Saint-Victor (Loir-et-Cher) industrial site, which is one of the group’s centres of excellence in producing drugs for the respiratory system.

“Global industry is choosing France. We’re reindustrialising and creating jobs,” added Lescure.

At the 2023 ‘Choose France’ summit, Chiesi CEO Giuseppe Accogli, announced a €60 million investment in France. Over ten years the Chiesi group has invested €100 million in the Loir-et-Cher area.

However, Chiesi’s investment needs to be put into perspective, since other major pharmaceutical companies have announced much larger figures. Pfizer plans to invest €463 million over five years, AstraZeneca €359 million, and GSK €140 million.

With 80% of the molecules used to manufacture medicines in Europe coming from China and India, Europe is trying to regain its pharmaceutical sovereignty.

On April 24, the Alliance for Critical Medicines was created to relocate drug production in Europe, and better combat shortages.

In an interview with Euractiv, the minister hailed the new European collective “wake-up call”.

He concluded; “In particular, we need to coordinate our relocation plans within Europe, and find appropriate economic support mechanisms.”

During the ‘Choose France’ summit, Microsoft announced a €4 billion investment in the development of data centers, to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, and Amazon a €1.2 billion investment in data centers and logistics warehouses, creating over 3,000 jobs.

According to auditing firm EY, France is Europe’s most attractive country for investment for the fifth year running, with 1,194 new and extended sites, ahead of the UK (985) and Germany (733).

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

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