Sanofi-Aventis plant in Abruzzo still closed after earthquake
A Sanofi-Aventis production site in Abruzzo, Italy remains closed more than a week after an earthquake in the region. Most of the 380 employees have been unable to return to their homes.
A Sanofi-Aventis production site in Abruzzo, Italy remains closed more than a week after an earthquake in the region. Most of the 380 employees have been unable to return to their homes.
The French pharmaceutical group said its 270,000sq m production facilities at Scoppito near L'Aquila, the city that took the full force of the quake, had not been seriously damaged.
The main drugs produced at the Italian site are Tritace (ramipril) in hypertension, the antibiotic Ketek (telithromycin) and glimepiride in diabetes. The factory, opened in the 1970s, produces four billion tablets and 100 million packets, which are exported to 42 countries.
There has been no confirmation that there will be any shortages of the products.
However, Sanofi said its staff and their families have been severely affected, with a high percentage suffering serious injuries or losing their homes. Some lives have also been lost.
Daniel Lapeyre, Sanofi chief executive in Italy, Philippe Luscan, senior vice-president of industrial affairs, Alain Peychaud, industrial affairs pharmaceutical solids and Philippe Beufils, associate vice president, visited the site two days after the earthquake. They estimated that it would take between 2-6 weeks to reopen. Restarting production lines and clearing access roads will take some time. However, they said the biggest priority was to ensure that staff are able to return to some sort of normality.
Sanofi-Aventis put up 250 tents on the factory grounds to house any staff and their families who had become homeless or who had been forced temporarily to leave their homes. The group said it would provide hot meals and financial support to anyone who required it.
Sanofi-Aventis held its first meeting for employees this week. It said that it wanted to show its support for the workforce and give a sign that the production site would gradually return to normal service. Some staff voluntarily returned to work so that the job of assessing damage to the plant could be started.
The Italian pharma company DompE also has a production site near L'Aquila, which suffered damage amounting to about Euro 15m.
The company is offering assistance to its 190 employees and still has not estimated when it will be able to re-open the site.
