Adapting and securing the production of essential medicines
With more than 250 production sites and 100,000 jobs, the French pharmaceutical industry is a strategic sector undergoing rapid transformation. Driven by growing global demand and sales estimated at over 70 billion euros, it faces a major challenge: to strengthen its production capacities while securing access to medicines.
The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated this dynamic, placing health sovereignty at the heart of priorities, with initiatives to relocate essential medicines within the country in particular.
At the heart of this transformation, process equipment - tanks, fermenters, cleaning systems - play a decisive role: they condition product conformity and the ability to produce on a large scale.
PIERRE GUERIN, an Equans France entity, supports these challenges by mastering the entire value chain, from design to maintenance. More than an equipment supplier, the company acts as a long-term industrial partner, serving an essential objective: to guarantee the availability of safe medicines for patients.
Producing insulin as close as possible to needs: the Amphastar example
At its site in Eragny-sur-Epte (Oise), Amphastar France Pharmaceuticals has embarked on a structuring project to boost its production capacity for insulin, an essential drug in the treatment of diabetes.
Insulin know-how, which has been established at this site for almost a century, was relaunched on a large scale following the acquisition of the site by the American group Amphastar in 2014.
The aim: to locally produce the entire process, from bioproduction to processing, in order to meet ever-increasing global demand.
To support this ramp-up, PIERRE GUERIN designed and delivered a turnkey insulin production facility, integrating all stages of the process: two automated production lines were set up, covering both the fermentation phase - with large-capacity tanks and associated units - and the harvesting, purification and filtration operations.
This facility has enabled the Eragny site to produce insulin from A to Z, and to export its output to numerous international markets, contributing directly to the care of diabetic patients worldwide.
Since delivery, PIERRE GUERIN has also been responsible for the facility's maintenance operations, guaranteeing the continuity of a production on which thousands of diabetic patients worldwide depend.
3.8 M+
of French people treated for diabetes in 2023 according to Santé publique France
4,1 M
estimated diabetic adults (IDF)
+520 000
additional cases expected by 2027 according to Santé publique France
→ Insulin produced at Éragny contributes directly to the treatment of patients on 3 continents