Sanofi chief savages third world generics

The chairman of the world's third largest drugmaker, Jean-Francois Dehecq of France's Sanofi-Aventis, has issued a blistering attack on third world generic drugmakers in an interview with the Financial Times. Mr Dehecq said that copycat drug firms based in India, Thailand and Indonesia "make drugs very cheaply and bring them to the north for people who can already pay."

The Sanofi chairman, who handed over most of his responsibilities to the firm's new chief executive. Gerard Le Fur on January 1 (see page 28), referred to the low wages paid to people in poorer countries as "three times nothing." He declared: "it's scandalous. They are exploiting people in the south. They should deal with their own countries first." Mr Dehecq also told the FT that he was disappointed with the decision by the French national health insurance fund (CNAM) to raise the proportion of generic drugs used in France from 63% at the end of 2005 to 70% at the end of this year.

Alex Singleton, president of the London, UK-headquartered think-tank, the Globalization Institute, responded to Mr Dehecq's criticisms of "exploited" workers and the attempts to overcome price transparency. Mr Singleton told the Marketletter: "seeing generic manufacturers thrive is good, not only because it helps create relatively high-waged, skilled jobs in developing countries, but also increases access to pharmaceuticals." He added that "drug firms think they can hold back the tides of globalization. Attempts to do this are doomed to failure."