A history marked by difficulties
During these last 20 years, there has been no lack of threats to the company’s well-being. Firstly, increased regulatory and technical constraints have resulted in strong inflation of the costs of production and of clinical development, creating new conditions that are more in line with the investment capabilities of major pharmaceutical groups than with those of an average-sized company.
The Group’s recent history is marked by internal and external events with serious consequences:
On January 12, 1994, a decision of the fourteen countries of the Zone Franc devalued the CFA franc by 50%. The result, given the very strong concentration of export business in French-speaking Africa, was a very sudden drop in the Company’s sales. A similar scenario was played out in 1998 with the devaluation of the ruble just as INNOTHERA, under duress, was beginning to develop its export activity on the Russian market in response to the setback in Africa.
Beginning in 1999, the heavy pressure on the national health system in France led to the development of generic drugs, as well as to reductions in regulatory prices. The direct consequences were a loss of 80% of medicines sales on the national market (a collapse in sales of Diovenor, which accounted for 1/3 of the Group’s total sales).
As a result, in 2000 the Group made the decision to cease research on molecules on which it had placed high hopes up to that point in time. All these events represented challenges to be faced. At a time when many French family pharmaceutical companies were giving up the struggle and selling out to international groups, INNOTHERA made the choice for independence. Its reactivity allowed it to turn each threat into a lever for action and create the market opportunities necessary for its development and its permanence.