Celltrion acquires 114-year-old French healthcare firm Gifrer
What's the deal? South Korean biopharma giant Celltrion has acquired Gifrer, a 114-year-old French healthcare company with a pharmacy sales network spanning more than 9,000 pharmacies and roughly 800 hospital supply channels across France. The deal, completed through Celltrion's French subsidiary as a 100% stake acquisition, is expected to close this month. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Gifrer, founded in 1912, sells around 140 over-the-counter (OTC), drugstore medicine, and health supplement products — including saline solution (42% market share in France), teeth-whitening products (28% share), and infant care lines. Celltrion plans to operate Gifrer as an independent entity, retaining all 70-odd employees while maximising brand and sales synergies.
Why now? France has been expanding its "pharmacy substitution" policy, which allows pharmacists to choose and dispense biosimilar or generic alternatives to doctor-prescribed medicines. Since 2022, more products have become eligible — most notably adalimumab (Humira) last year. Celltrion expects denosumab (Prolia/Xgeva) to gain substitution approval this year, making a strong pharmacy salesforce essential for pushing its own biosimilars through the channel.
Gifrer's established relationships with thousands of French pharmacies give Celltrion a ready-made distribution platform at exactly the right moment.
What could go wrong? Integrating a century-old local brand into a Korean biopharma's operations carries cultural and operational risks. Maintaining Gifrer's brand identity while extracting synergies is a balancing act. Regulatory changes to France's substitution policy could also slow the expected biosimilar uptake through pharmacies.
The signal: Celltrion projects Gifrer's product portfolio alone will generate roughly US$209.6M in additional revenue over the next five years. More broadly, the deal reflects a growing trend among biosimilar makers to invest in last-mile pharmacy distribution as European governments push substitution policies to cut healthcare costs.
It also signals Celltrion's ambition to expand beyond biologics into OTC and generics — diversifying revenue streams as biosimilar competition intensifies. Expect more M&A from Celltrion as it builds out direct sales infrastructure across Europe.
Read more: celltrion.com
