On Sunday, Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and AstraZeneca Plc (NASDAQ: AZN) were among the pharmaceutical companies who announced they will be investing a total of nearly $1 billion in their operations in France, just ahead of this year’s “Choose France” business summit. Together with the domestic Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY), Pfizer, AstraZeneca will together invest €1.87 billion which is more than $2 billion to expand their operations in the country.
AstraZeneca committed 365 million euros, which is about $394 million, to enhance its facilities at its French manufacturing facility in Dunkirk. Pfizer pledged even more, making a commitment to invest 500 million euros or $540 million over the next five years to boost its French R&D capabilities. The leading investor is the Parisian drugmaker, Sanofi, who commited to invest 1 billion euros or $1.1 billion to expand its manufacturing capacity across three of its French sites. With this ambitious biomanufacturing investment, Sanofi promises to significantly strengthen France’s ability to control the production of its medicines from start to finish. Moreover, Sanofi made an agreement with a biotech company Novavax to join forces in both expanding access to COVID-19 vaccines, as well as to explore the development of a next-generation flu and COVID-19 combination shot. The latest strategic move with which Sanofi gained access to Novavax’s innovative vaccine technology is one of the ways the French company is trying to find new growth avenues amid ...