PHARMACEUTICALS
That left a huge amount of hitherto untapped potential . of the shares and agreed to a two-year lock-up period , remaining a long-term strategic partner . L ’ Oréal , Sanofi ’ s largest shareholder , holds approximately 5 % and has committed to a oneyear lock-up , while EPIC Bpifrance , acting for the French state in accordance with the Convention French Tech Souveraineté , has 12 % and has also committed to a two-year lock-up . This gives the company certainty over when the listing will take place and it can grow further , independently , while also giving employees assurance of long-term security than would be impossible with an indefinitely postponed IPO . “ Sanofi really played a very important role in this . They said ‘ For us , the most important thing is that over time you are going to create value for this company , so we will be a very stable shareholder for you ’,” Rotthier says . At the same time , EuroAPI is able to convince the
Haverhill houses the largest spray dryer in the industry
market that it is truly independent and can be trusted with commercially sensitive chemistry . No other company in the field , he believes , is so rich in technology , much of which was never utilised because Sanofi did not want to reach out to his competitors and they did not want to come to Sanofi .
Spread of assets
EuroAPI ’ s six assets are all “ rather big ”, Rotthier says , giving it advantages of scale . All of their capabilities are different , enabling the company to build on all of these strengths . At each site , R & D resources are going to be put in if they are not there already . For example , Frankfurt-Höchst is strong in very complex chemistry but also has peptides and oligonucleotides facilities that were built in 1976 and 2004 respectively but were rarely or never used by Sanofi . EuroAPI is now actively marketing these competences to the outside world . “ Innovators ’ logic is different . If they needed to produce something , they just built it ; it was a drop in the ocean ,” Rotthier says . Thus , at a certain point in the 1970s , Sanofi thought it might need peptide capabilities for a pipeline project , so they built a stateof-the-art facility . Budapest , meanwhile , is highly focused on the production of highly complex prostaglandins , where sometimes over 60 steps are needed , it takes more than a year to make the product and the outcome is a couple of kilos . “ There also , we have an entire pilot lab that was also never used and here we are developing high potency .” Vertolaye in France is highly specialised in corticosteroids and hormones . EuroAPI has invested in a new hormones facility . The other French site , at St-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf is the only Western producer of vitamin
B 12 and supplies the large consumer healthcare companies who are also looking to have an alternative supplier outside China . ( The company has recently announced plans to build a € 24 million biomass boiler at St-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf to be installed by 2025 . It said that this will support the planned increase in vitamin B 12 capacity , while reducing
CO 2 emissions by 76 % on a 2020
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