The group’s management has chosen the GSK plant in Évreux to set up the production of the new formulation of its flagship drug, which 35 million patients around the world rely on to relieve shortness of breath due to asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). This is in clinical trials and has the potential to reduce the drug’s carbon footprint by 80% by 2030 and 90% by 2045. This is the second time GSK has changed the Ventolin propellant gas, launched in 1973 with CFC, banned in 2015 because it was responsible for the hole in the ozone layer. GSK will invest 350 million euros in Évreux by the end of 2025 to install three lines dedicated to the production of the new formulation of Ventolin, the majority of which will be exported.
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, made the announcement himself on Friday by visiting the site, one of the two “economic lungs”, with air base 105, of the constituency where he was elected MP in 2007, 2012 and 2017. He got involved in this issue, meeting the group’s general director three times. “Ten years ago, tires were burning at the entrance to the factory, because 300 jobs were threatened there,” recalls Bruno Le Maire, who then prevented the start of a disastrous spiral for the site. Évreux was this time in competition with two other GSK factories in Spain and the United States. “The issue was decisive,” the minister assured the employees. We landed on the right side of the coin. Otherwise, it would have been the beginning of the end. You are safe for several decades.” And the minister justifies the tens of millions of euros in subsidies granted to GSK: “French industry must be carbon-free and innovative.”
