- August 20, 2019
Sanofi committed the donation via Twitter in April. In a statement, CEO Olivier Brandicourt said the cathedral had “survived for centuries” and Sanofi would help make sure that does not change. The drugmaker “can be proud that our company is participating in its restoration for future generations,” he said.
Sanofi joins many others contributing toward restoring the cathedral after April’s blaze. The billionaire Pinault family started the donations with a €100 million commitment, and the Arnault family followed with a €200 million contribution, the Wall Street Journal reports.
L’Oreal and its top shareholder, the Bettencourt Meyers family, plus the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, are giving €200 million, according to the newspaper. French oil company Total contributed €100 million as well, its CEO tweeted. And in total, the rebuilding fund reached $1 billion as of the middle of April.
Sanofi operates at least eight (8) manufacturing sites and five (5) R&D facilities in France, according to its recent annual report. The drug maker, the seventh-largest in the world by sales, is based in Paris.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said that the country plans to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral in five (5) years. Paris will host the Summer Olympics in 2024, so the city’s Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said “we need to do everything we can so that Notre Dame Cathedral is returned to all its splendor for this occasion,” as quoted by the Journal. One expert told the newspaper the landmark will take 15 years to fix up.
REFERENCE: Fierce Pharma; 17 APR 2019; Eric Sagonowsky