The French company Sanofi is building a new plant to produce insulin in Frankfurt’s Höchst industrial park. A total of well over a billion euros will be invested in the planned construction.
The Sanofi’s multi-billion dollar investment plans in Frankfurt are now official: The French pharmaceutical company is investing around 1.3 billion euros in the construction of a modern insulin production plant at its site in the Frankfurt district of Höchst by 2029, as the company announced on Thursday. The high-tech insulin plant is expected to be built by 2029, and several hundred specialists will then work there.
EU is still examining financial support
The new production facility, with an area of around 36,000 square meters – about five football fields – is to replace the existing production facility. The federal government, the state and the city had campaigned for Sanofi to stay in Frankfurt and had promised subsidies for the new plant. The amount of the funds still depends on the outcome of an EU aid procedure.
In the global search for a location, the company chose Frankfurt because it has the best political framework, said Sanofi spokesman Stefan Dietrich. In addition, Frankfurt has over a hundred years of expertise in insulin production and highly qualified employees.
Rhine: “strong signal”
Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) and Economics Minister Kaweh Mansoori (SPD) viewed the previous negotiations and the decision as a success for their own economic policy. Rhein said on Thursday that Hesse would become the focal point of insulin production in Europe. The investment was “a strong signal for our pharmaceutical location and another milestone for our pharmaceutical sovereignty and export strength in Germany.” Mansoori stressed that the health care of people in Germany and Hesse would become more crisis-proof and independent.
Frankfurt’s mayor Mike Josef (SPD) also welcomed the decision as “great news”. Additional industrial jobs would be secured.
Billions in sales of insulin
The Frankfurt-Höchst site is already one of Sanofi’s largest plants with around 6,600 employees, around 4,000 of whom are directly or indirectly involved in insulin production. The diabetes drug Lantus is produced in Höchst, with which Sanofi recently achieved annual sales of billions.
More than 86,000 people work for the company worldwide. Recently, Sanofi is said to have considered to relocate insulin production to FranceIn July, the Handelsblatt reported that Sanofi would probably stay in Frankfurt and – contrary to what had been feared – would not withdraw from Hesse. With the official confirmation of the billion-euro investment in the Rhine-Main area on Thursday, the withdrawal plans are now finally off the table.
