This agreement successfully concludes the exclusive discussions entered into by the two companies on December 2nd, 2014. It also follows the information-consultation procedure of employee representative institutions, finalised by Sanofi on March 10th, 2015. This procedure has been supplemented with an agreement on supporting measures signed by three trade unions, CFE-CGC, CFTC and CFDT, resulting from a constructive social dialogue.
“I commend and thank our on-site team members for their hard work and commitment to this project, which is a major opportunity for the Toulouse site. I would also like to express my appreciation to all the stakeholders – elected officials, authorities, associations, members of the scientific community – whose invaluable support has made this project possible,” said Elias Zerhouni, Sanofi Global R&D President.
This strategic collaboration aims to sustain a high level of scientific and technological activities, maintain jobs and attract new talent and projects to the site. It puts into practice the commitments undertaken by Sanofi as part of the development project presented in July 2012 for its biomedical research activities in Toulouse.
In particular, the agreement includes the divestiture to Evotec of the site’s Research and Technological platform activities which match Evotec’s areas of expertise as well as the continuation of these activities and the corresponding transfer of the employees currently involved in these activities.
For Sanofi, the strategic collaboration also involves a financial commitment of €250 million over a five-year period for the implementation of a multi-year research program including, among other projects, the creation of a support fund dedicated to developing scientific collaboration with academic partners in France.
Evotec has thus become the sixth Bioparc resident company to benefit from the services and scientific infrastructures which our Support platform offers to all start-ups, biotechnology companies and academic players seeking to settle in the heart of the Oncopole.