2023-11-08 13:58:54
ECONOMY – The French group Sanofi is the target of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). The pharmaceutical giant is suspected of having disseminated false or misleading information and of having engaged in price manipulation. The suspicions concern the launch in 2017 of the drug Dupixent, a “blockbuster” for the laboratory and source of more than 10 billion euros in annual sales. Sanofi stated that it was not “aware” of this investigation, the opening of which was revealed by The letter and confirmed by several media.
According to the investigative daily The letter (formerly The letter a), this preliminary investigation was opened by the PNF last March, for dissemination of false or misleading information and price manipulation. This is a fraudulent operation which consists of modifying the price of a security, using maneuvers that can start or stop a market trend. The aim is to give misleading indications about the supply, demand or price of a financial instrument.
Exponential growth based on fraud?
It is the financial communication of the pharmaceutical laboratory which is called into question by the PNF investigation, entrusted to the financial brigade, and Sanofi is suspected of having used this communication to convince the financial markets of the very good prospects expected for the launch of one of its drugs.
Dupixent, by its scientific name dupilumab, the pharmaceutical group’s flagship product, was launched in 2017. This medication is particularly used to treat asthma and eczema. Dupixent is considered a “blockbuster”, a term used to designate a drug which generates more than a billion euros per year for its manufacturer, a threshold well exceeded by Sanofi’s product.
In the third quarter of 2019, sales stood at more than 1.39 billion euros in 30 countries. A result which owed a lot to the arrival of the British Paul Hudson as CEO of the group. In 2022, sales of Dupixent jumped 43.8% compared to 2021 to reach 8.29 billion euros, representing 20% of turnover total of the French laboratory, which then set itself the objective of reaching the mark of 10 billion euros. A figure exceeded in the third quarter of the current year, with almost 11 billion euros.
A judicial source, contacted by AFP, did not reveal whether the financial brigade carried out searches or police custody as part of this preliminary investigation. Sanofi stated that it was not “aware” of this investigation. “As a listed company, the financial information that Sanofi publishes is accurate, precise and sincere, and is also duly audited by two auditing firms”reacted the group in a document sent to AFP.
Convicted in the Dépakine affair, Sanofi is the subject of another investigation
In addition to treating chronic inflammatory skin diseases and asthma, Dupixent is used in certain countries as a treatment for sinus pathologies or chronic lung diseases. the esophagus. The figures achieved by the drug nevertheless worry investors, who point out Sanofi’s dependence on Dupixent, the patent of which will fall into the public domain in 2031. This means that other laboratories will be able to manufacture and market it, without infringing the patent of the French laboratory.
Apprehensions that Sanofi dismisses out of hand, announcing that it has strengthened its investments in research and development. The objective of creating other drugs likely to become “new growth engines”. Consequence of this decision: the group abandons its margin objective for 2025.
In May 2022, Sanofi, indicted in 2020 for “aggravated deception” and “involuntary manslaughter”, was ordered to compensate, to the tune of 450,000 euros, a family whose daughter was exposed to Dépakine, for a lack of information in the instructions.
The case began in 2011 and took a legal turn in 2015, when the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation. A year later, the Ministry of Health announced the creation of a Compensation Fund for victims, managed by the National Office for Compensation for Medical Accidents, Iatrogenic Conditions and Nosocomial Infections (ONIAM). Sanofi, however, refuses to contribute to this compensation fund.
An intransigence attributed by the press to Serge Weinberg, chairman of the Board of Directors of the French laboratory and also president of the Dolder club, an ultra-secret Bilderberg of Big Pharma. Despite this affair, the bosses of the largest pharmaceutical laboratories met in 2018 in Paris, where they were invited to a dinner at the Elysée by President Emmanuel Macron, close to Serge Weinberg, who introduced chez Rothschild.
In October 2022, an investigating judge of the Paris judicial court was seized of another investigation, concerning potential toxic releases from the Sanofi factory in Mourenx (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), to determine whether a quantity of sodium valproate dangerously higher than the authorized standard is rejected. The investigation is always in progress.
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