Insulin factory: Sanofi relies on Frankfurt thanks to lush state aid

Of course, this is good news, not only for the traditional Frankfurt chemical and pharmaceutical district Höchst. The fact that the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi is investing around 2 billion euros in a new insulin factory secures hundreds of jobs. It also makes part of the drug supply in Europe safer. In view of the supply shortages of the recent past, this is a health policy success. But the joy in Berlin, Wiesbaden as state capital and Frankfurt-Höchst must not hide how the commitment to the location came about. Without subsidies of 400 million euros, the group would not have opted for Höchst. How competitive is production? But if such a large part of the investment sum flows from taxpayers' money, the picture of the supposedly still attractive business location becomes relativized. To remain in words of chemistry, this is not about an organic renaissance of industry. It is rather an industrial policy operation with the checkbook to visit, even if it is undoubtedly underpinned by the great competence of the employees in Frankfurt. The fact that the federal government attaches its support to strict conditions, for example the guaranteed production of at least 1.1 tonnes of insulin annually by 2042, is understandable with regard to security of supply. But it also proves that politics no longer trusts the framework conditions it set itself sufficiently. If a site is permanently competitive on its own, a manufacturer like Sanofi does not need contractual thumbscrews for a quarter of a century to keep production in the country. A glance at the last ten years at the Höchst site warns of sobriety anyway. The global pressure to consolidate leaves its mark there, even if the industrial park can still be regarded as a success story in the succession of the once proud Hoechst AG. The insulin factory is in any case a ray of hope, but none at the end of the tunnel: Horrendous energy costs, crippling bureaucracy and an often sluggish environment make it seem endless. Subsidies now ease to use a pharmaceutical analogy, symptoms. They are not therapy.