Sanofi to create standalone API company

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has announced plans to create a European company which will produce and market active pharmaceutical ingredients (API).

Sanofi will combine its API commercial and development activities with six of its European API production sites to create the new standalone company.

With China being the world’s largest producer of pharmaceutical ingredients, Sanofi has launched the new company to account for increasing medicine shortages and supply capacities in Europe and beyond.  

The new company is expected to rank as the world’s second largest API company, with an anticipated €1 billion in sales by 2022. More so, Sanofi will employee 3,100 staff at its headquarters in France, though it hasn't stated if these are new or existing jobs. Sanofi will hold a minority stake of 30% in the new company and intends the standalone business to be debt free in order to maximise future investment capacities.

Philippe Luscan, executive vice president, Global Industrial Affairs at Sanofi, said: “Based on the expertise and experience built over decades within our industrial network, this new entity would help ensure a greater stability in supplying drugs to millions of patients in Europe and beyond. With this endeavour, this new entity would be agile as a standalone company, and able to unlock its growth potential, especially in capturing new third-party sales and all the opportunities of a market growing at a pace of 6 % per year.”