Sanofi pledges a $20 billion investment programme in the US

France's Sanofi is the latest European pharma group to promise a big capital investment programme on manufacturing and R&D in the US, saying it intends to spend "at least $20 billion" there by the end of the decade.

The announcement comes in response to President Donald Trump's call for all medicines used in the US to be produced there, as well as the threat of sector-specific tariffs on imported medicines, and follows similar pledges from Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Roche.

The brief announcement from Sanofi did not go into the same level of detail as some of those other companies – there was no mention of new facilities, for example – but chief executive Paul Hudson said the investment "will be substantial and will help ensure the production of key medicines in the US."

There will be increases in US R&D spending to "accelerate" Sanofi's science and an expansion in US manufacturing capacity at the company's existing sites, as well as partnerships with domestic manufacturers.

"While Sanofi's investment decisions will be adjusted as the external environment continues to evolve, the planned investments are expected to create a significant number of high-paying jobs in multiple states in the coming years," said the company, which currently employs around 13,000 people in the US.

Roche thinking again?

Sanofi is the first big pharma group to announce an investment programme since Trump resurrected his most favoured nation (MFN) policy on drug pricing, which has sent a chill through the pharma sector and led at least one manufacturer – Roche – to suggest its $50 billion US spending plans may be affected as a result.

In a new executive order (EO) unveiled on Monday, Trump said that the US price of medicines would be set at "the same price as the nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the world." That would lead to prices in the US coming down around 59% "almost immediately," while they would have to rise elsewhere to compensate, he claimed.

"Should the proposed EO…go into effect, Roche's ability to fund the significant investments previously announced in the US will be in question," said the company. Novartis, meanwhile, told Reuters it had no plans to change its strategy in response to the order.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) trade organisation said earlier this week that "Importing foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad deal for American patients and workers. It would mean fewer treatments and cures, and would jeopardise the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America – threatening jobs, hurting our economy and making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines."

PhRMA has urged the administration to focus instead on the role of middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which it claims take a cut that "often exceeds the price in Europe."

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