Background

The Aventis group was born out of the fusion, in 1999, of the groups Rhône Poulenc Rorer and Hoechst Marion Roussel. The latter itself is descended from the acquisition of Roussel UCLAF by Hoechst AG. These successive regroupings made Aventis one of the five world pharmaceutical leaders. These fusions were not however without consequences; firstly for the patients, by the abandonning of multiple research domains ; secondly for the therapeutic European autonomy, more and more under the control of the American industry and pharmaceutical “ethics”, and finally for the staff, whose numbers decreased in a dramatic way. On the Romainville site, previous research centre of Roussel UCLAF, the number has decreased from more than 1800 to 1000 during the last four years (whereas they have increased from 1200 to 1600 in the USA). The restructuring of the research and development envisaged today in France (including the sites of Vitry, Antony and Romainville) involves a further reduction from 2200 to 1600, and in the abandonning some major therapeutic areas such as the anti-infectious diseases, accompanied by the total disengagement of Aventis from the Romainville site. It should be noted that 17,000,000 people die each year in the world from infectious diseases. This strategy is based on the fact that there is a lower profitability of antibacterial and antifungal drugs, and the inability of the patient populations affected by parasites to pay for specialist medicines, whereas in the same time, the Aventis group announced a net benefit increased by 28% in 2002, to 2,09 billion euros. This strategy, which is justified neither by economic considerations, nor scientific considerations, nor by social imperatives, has been contested by all the personnel and their representatives. In reaction, a certain number of salaried staff and their representatives have decided to propose to the management a project for the future for the Romainville site, second pharmaceutical centre in France, while trying to bring together the interests of the patients, the staff, and of Aventis itself, with all the competence, methodologies, infrastructures and know-how present on the site.

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