Doliprane: 5 things to know about the drug that will come under American control

Doliprane will be able to come under the control of the American investment fund CD&R: the pharmaceutical group Sanofi formalized on Monday October 21 its choice to sell it 50% of its subsidiary Opella which produces the analgesic, an operation in which the State says it has obtained guarantees “extremely strong”.

This proposed sale arouses strong emotion within public opinion and the political class because it concerns a basic medicine used by a large number of French people for almost sixty years.

► A medicine based on paracetamol

Doliprane contains paracetamol as its active ingredient, a chemical compound used to relieve pain and reduce fever. The American chemist Harmon Northrop Morse synthesized his ancestor called acetylaminophenol for the first time in 1878, but without attributing any medical properties to it. Two Strasbourg doctors discovered by chance in 1886 its pain-relieving and anti-fever effects, giving rise to two molecules: phenacetin and paracetamol.

In 1893, a German doctor compared the effectiveness of the two molecules and established an erroneous conclusion: he judged the first to be less toxic to the kidney than the second. While phenacetin was marketed in 1887, paracetamol fell into obscurity. The molecule reappears sixty years later.

Indeed, in the 1950s, the poor tolerance of phenacetin was reassessed, due to the significant increase in cases of chronic renal failure among regular users of the molecule. It was withdrawn from the market in 1955 in favor of paracetamol, which had fewer side effects. It is marketed under the name Panadol in the United Kingdom and Tylenol in the United States, before being placed on the market in France under different brands, including Doliprane.

► A tablet born sixty years ago

Doliprane as it exists today was created in 1964, sixty years ago, by pharmacist Henri Bottu, first marketed in the form of a 500 mg tablet. Originally, the drug was produced in Saint-Jean-de-Livet in Calvados, near Lisieux, where a new company has been entirely dedicated to the production of Doliprane since 1982.

After its first difficult years, the little yellow box gained notoriety in particular thanks to the launch of a new range for children, known for its pink color and its strawberry taste. Its production is finally taking off and Doliprane is taking off significantly in pharmacies.

Henri Bottu’s laboratories were bought by Rhône-Poulenc in 1988, which became Aventis in 1999. In 2004, the latter merged with Sanofi to become Sanofi Aventis. The pharmaceutical group took the name Sanofi in 2011. Doliprane is today manufactured by its subsidiary Opella, responsible for the production of non-prescription medicines, vitamins, minerals and food supplements.

► In tablets, powder or suppositories

Today, Doliprane is available in around twenty forms, to meet the varied needs of patients. It is available in powder form for oral solution, suppositories, scored tablets, capsules or even effervescent tablets. Each form comes in different dosages, ranging from 100 mg of paracetamol for children up to 1,000 mg for adults.

► The best-selling drug in France

Doliprane is often considered one of the best-selling drugs in France: the French buy more than 400 million boxes each year, according to The Echoes. It accounts for more than 70% of the paracetamol market in France, far ahead of the Upsa group’s two rival products, Efferalgan and Dafalgan.

However, France only represents around 10% of Opella’s sales, present in 150 countries and which achieved 5.2 billion euros in turnover in 2023.

► One brand among others

Classic forms of Doliprane contain only paracetamol and can be replaced by other brands such as Dafalgan or Efferalgan or generic drugs.

Just like Doliprane, these medications are available with or without a doctor’s prescription. There are no differences in therapeutic effects between all these variants of the drug.