Biotech & Pharma

Convinced that biopharmaceuticals will revolutionize healthcare in the future, French industry, supported by the government, is fully committed to making France a world leader in biomanufacturing. Since its launch in January 2022, the French “Biomedicines and Biomanufacturing in Advanced Therapies” acceleration strategy has enabled France to rank second in Europe in terms of biotherapies under development. By mobilizing all the players in the industry, from major innovators to visionary start-ups, and by acting across the entire value chain, this strategy, implemented through the Innovation Santé 2030 plan, the health component of France 2030, is bearing fruit. 

The government’s ambition is to make France a world leader in the biomanufacturing of medicines. An ambition supported by France 2030 and Business France to promote the development and production of biotherapies in France. From a historical model based on a single product, the pharmaceutical industry is successfully pursuing its transformation towards a 5P model of medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory and proven). To achieve this, it has set itself some ambitious targets, including the production of 20 biomedicines by 2030, the emergence of one unicorn and five intermediate-sized enterprises (ETIs), and the doubling of the number of jobs in the biomanufacturing sector. To date, the sector already has 2,210 companies, including 820 in biotech and 1,393 in medtech.

According to “Panorama France HealthTech 2023”, the ecosystem accounts for 60,000 direct and indirect jobs in France. “The French healthtech sector has reached a new level of maturity, with a growing number of companies operating on international markets. The number of people employed in the sector is also growing (+20% in direct jobs in two years), reflecting the dynamism and vitality of the sector,” explains Chloé Evans, Deputy Director General in charge of sector studies and institutional relations at France Biotech.

Along with digital health, biotech is the sector that has made the most progress in terms of products brought to market (or, to a lesser extent, exports). Having gained in maturity and growth, biotech and medtech companies are now focusing their attention on international deployment, industrialization (scale-up phase) and financing and support needs in terms of regulatory constraints, especially at European level. 

Biomedicine: the future of health

59% of medicines in development worldwide are now biotherapies. Four years after the global Covid crisis, the strategic importance of innovation and sovereignty in France and Europe in terms of industry, biomedicines and the biomanufacturing of new therapies is a key issue, especially in a European context characterized by an ageing population. “Healthtech is contributing to the reindustrialization of our regions, to employment and to decarbonization,” says Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate for Industry and Energy. 

Biopharmaceuticals not only add to our existing arsenal of treatments, but also offer new hopes for treatment, which is a major public health imperative. The new technologies created and developed by healthtech entrepreneurs in the biotech and medtech sectors are changing the way many diseases are treated, heralding a revolutionary future in medicine for rare, incurable and untreatable diseases. Technological innovation is making it possible to personalize the approach to treatment. The therapeutic use of substances of biological, molecular (DNA, proteins, including antibodies) or cellular origin and the development of innovative therapies (gene therapy, somatic cell therapy, drugs derived from cellular engineering) therefore represent a major advance for patients and de facto contribute to the sustainability of the French healthcare system. 

An ecosystem geared towards the development of innovative therapies 

In 2024, France has an ecosystem of excellence covering every link in the biomedical value chain. Its highly developed infrastructures and its organization into clusters and competitive poles have created a framework conducive to therapeutic innovation and are a real differentiating factor in the attractiveness of the sector. “The combination of research based on cutting-edge national infrastructures and innovation driven by a rich entrepreneurial fabric helps to attract and unite high-potential players in our country”, explains Sylvie Retailleau, the French Minister for Higher Education and Research. The major investments made by French pharmaceutical companies in recent years illustrate this vitality. In 2020, for example, Sanofi invested €610 million in the Lyon area to create a biomanufacturing site for vaccines and a new research center dedicated to vaccines. Two years later, the flagship of the French pharmaceutical industry announced a massive investment plan worth €935 million between 2022 and 2026, with the aim of providing France with a complete, independent value chain for mRNA technology. 

In order to strengthen the structure of the industry, accelerate the time to market of new biotherapies and raise its profile in France and internationally, France Biolead, a national player created in December 2022 under the aegis of the Strategic Committee for Healthcare Industries and Technologies (CSF-ITS) and supported by the state to the tune of €800,000, brings together the entire biomanufacturing value chain: academic research, training, industry, competitiveness poles, professional associations and trade unions. There are more than a thousand structures in the French ecosystem. Within this landscape, two regions have historically been the driving forces: Île-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

For Sylvie Retailleau, “the development and technology transfer of the first results of biomedical research depend on our joint ability to integrate them in a continuum between research, health and industry”.

To bring together healthcare, research and innovation in centers of excellence, the President of the French Republic announced 12 new IHUs [medical training and research centers] and four new bio clusters last year. “These successes, which provide our country with world-class research capabilities and establish strategic partnerships between academic and industrial players, are all tools that will help to speed up access to innovation in healthcare.” 

Since the announcement of the France 2030 plan, Fabien Rolet, director of Polepharma, Europe’s leading pharmaceutical cluster, has seen “a record level of investment” in its industrial sites, as well as “capacity increases in many plants, whether they belong to large groups or not, and the repatriation of some production. It’s a real policy of attracting and welcoming pharmaceutical production, whether traditional or biotherapeutic”. Chaired by Philippe Ivanes, Director of the Sanofi Pasteur production site, this cluster brings together 350 players in the pharmaceutical development and production sector, including training, packaging, equipment manufacturers, chemicals and distribution. Located in the Centre, Normandy, Île-de-France and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions, it represents a pool of 70,000 jobs, 60% of French pharmaceutical production and an export turnover of €25.3 billion. 

An industry with a reputation for expertise and excellence 

With 363 unique biopharmaceuticals on the market and 584 in development, positioning France as Europe’s second largest pipeline behind the UK, France occupies a prime position in the global competition, as shown by a study carried out in 2023 by Mabdesign for the Agency for Health Innovation (Agence de l’innovation en santé, AIS), France BioLead and France Biotech. France has the second largest pipeline of products in preclinical development and the fourth largest pipeline of products in clinical development. It develops 20% of European biomedicines. 

The sector has not only consolidated its position as the European leader in rare diseases, but has also risen to major challenges, particularly in terms of funding.

“Despite a difficult macroeconomic context, the ecosystem has demonstrated its ability to innovate and reinvent itself, attracting almost €1.8 billion in funding,” says Franck Mouthon, the former President of France Biotech

“France remains the second European country, after the UK, in terms of the amount of venture capital raised and the number of deals in 2023.” The support of key partners such as Bpifrance, which injected almost €1.2 billion in 2023, is a sign of confidence in the vitality and growth potential of French healthtech. “There are many examples of healthtech companies moving ‘from the lab bench to the factory floor’. The HealthTech Panorama published last year shows strong growth in the number of employees: +18% between 2021 and 2023”, explains Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate for Industry and Energy. 

With a proven track record in key therapeutic areas such as infectious diseases, oncology, metabolic pathology and immunology, the quality of scientific and medical research is attracting industrial investment. France has become Europe’s leading destination for healthcare projects and is the leading industrial sector for foreign investors in France. 

The dynamism of the French pharmaceutical industry is also reflected in its extensive export network, the development of which is supported by Business France. One in five companies has at least one subsidiary abroad, and 50% of biotech and medtech companies over ten years old have an international presence. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the four manufacturing sectors that contribute positively to France’s balance of trade.

The European continent tops the list of international locations for French companies, although the United States remains one of their key markets. More specifically, while the United States is the first destination for French healthtech companies due to the size of its market, where a third of their subsidiaries are located (42%), the European continent, and in particular the largest, most structured and mature markets – the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Belgium – remain very attractive for these companies, with an increase of 5 points compared to 2022 (43%). 

Massive government support 

This French excellence and the acceleration of the industrial innovation strategy owe much to strong financial support from the government and an ambitious 360-degree strategy. From upstream research to local biomanufacturing and international expansion, more than 19 of the 21 actions of the France 2030 strategy have already been implemented in the last two years, in order to take action at every stage of the development of a biotherapy. As part of the Innovation Santé 2030 plan, no fewer than 86 projects involving more than 250 partners across the country have been funded, representing a public investment of €338 million. This strategy is actively turning research into reality for the industry and patient care. 

To catalyze innovation and provide training in biomanufacturing skills, a dedicated research program, jointly led by the CEA and Inserm, was launched in Nantes in December 2023. With €80 million from France 2030, the program has already funded and launched 12 projects involving more than 50 laboratories. At the same time, more than €1 million has been committed to enable technology transfer from research to industry and the clinic. In addition, 46 projects have been funded to develop innovative biotherapies for human health in the key areas of cancer, rare diseases and neurology. 

In terms of industrial facilities, an essential link in the chain for enabling innovative companies to scale up and produce, pharmaceutical companies can draw on the “Biomedicines and Biomanufacturing Innovation in Advanced Therapies” and “Industrialization and Health Capability” schemes. For example, eight winning industrialization projects have been funded to the tune of €50 million. The creation of the Agency for Health Innovation (Agence de l’innovation en santé, AIS) in November 2022 and the personalized support provided to seven companies as part of the “Biomedicines and Biomanufacturing” acceleration strategy under the FrenchTech 2030 program have helped to remove barriers to market access. “We are concentrating all our efforts on supporting the reindustrialization of the country, a fundamental trend that is playing an increasingly structuring role in the healthcare ecosystem with France 2030. We are in the process of implementing this component, which will result in new plants coming on stream and new molecules reaching the market,” explains Paul-François Fournier, Executive Director of Innovation at Bpifrance. 

Through the Health Innovation 2030 plan, “France is on its way to becoming a major player in biomedical products and biomanufacturing,” notes the AIS in its study for 2023. Two years after the launch of the acceleration strategy, the mobilization of all the players in the biotech and medtech sectors is bearing fruit, be that maintaining France’s leadership by ensuring a flow of innovation from academic research, accelerating development projects while ensuring industrialization in the country, or guaranteeing the quantity and quality of biomedical products at controlled costs for the health system. 

For the AIS, it is now vital to “continue the policy of structuring that we have embarked on in order to make the sector increasingly competitive and attractive internationally, thus guaranteeing patients access to the best treatments”.