Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) has announced staff reductions in France as part of a post-integration plan of Sanofi’s animal-health business (Merial), which BI acquired in 2017. The reorganization includes the elimination of 327 positions (197 in human health and 130 in animal health), the parallel creation of 32 positions, and the modification of 180 contracts for reasons of geographical change for some medical representatives or transfer of positions to Lyon, France. BI currently employs 2,800 people in France, including 2,300 from the merger with Merial.

BI and Sanofi agreed to swap businesses in December 2015, with BI acquiring Sanofi’s animal-health business (Merial) and Sanofi acquiring BI’s consumer healthcare business. The transaction included a gross cash payment from BI to Sanofi of EUR 4.7 billion ($5.1 billion). The companies completed the deal in January 2017.

For its animal-health activity, BI says its objective is to first consolidate positions by finalizing a transfer, announced in October 2017, of global functions to its world headquarters in Germany and to resize its local business organization. For its human-health activity, the company is focusing mainly on specialty drugs, accelerating its digital transformation, and as previously announced, consolidating support functions at a single site in Lyon. In total, the adaptation project of BI’s organizations in France could lead to the elimination of 327 positions (197 in human health and 130 in animal health), the creation of 32 posts, and the modification of 180 contracts for reasons of geographical change for some medical representatives or transfer of posts to Lyon.

Since the acquisition of Merial in January 2017, BI says it has strengthened its position in France. Over the past two years, BI has announced investments of EUR 335-million ($380-million) in its operations in the Lyon metropolis with the creation of 250 jobs with the inauguration of its new animal-health headquarters France, a new Global Research and Development Center, and the construction of a new veterinary vaccine-production site.

Source: Boehringer Ingelheim