“It’s pretty amazing the progress we’ve made. » On January 11, during his speech at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, a flagship event for the pharmaceutical industry, the CEO of Sanofi, Paul Hudson, did not hide his enthusiasm for the performance of the group of which he took the reins, at the end 2019. “If you had asked me if I thought we would have made so much progress two years later, I would have said, ‘I hope so. But I’m not sure, because we don’t know what we have in front of us.” »
The boss of the tricolor giant can rejoice. Despite the health crisis that marked his debut at the head of the group, Sanofi weathered the Covid-19 storm without major damage. Better: the laboratory, which unveiled its annual results on Friday February 4, saw its turnover for 2021 grow by 4.8% in one year, reaching 37.8 billion euros. Its profit rose by 11.8% to 8.21 billion euros.
The opportunity for the pharmaceutical manufacturer to reaffirm the relevance of the strategy play to win (“play to win”), which he hired at the end of 2019, in order to refocus the laboratory’s activities on the most profitable assets, capable of positioning themselves either as the first in their category or as the best. Symbol of the transformation of Big Pharma, the group, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2023, has just adopted a new visual identity.
Forecasts soon to be revised upwards
The good results of the Parisian laboratory are notably driven by the success of its star drug, Dupixent. This monoclonal antibody, whose active ingredient, dupilumab, was developed in collaboration with the American Regeneron, and marketed since 2017, has seen its sales soar once again. The latter jumped from 3.5 billion euros in 2020 to 5.3 billion euros in 2021, an increase of more than 50%. An engine for the group’s growth: the drug, of which nearly three quarters of sales were made in the United States, now represents nearly 14% of the laboratory’s annual revenue.
The French champion does not intend to stop there. His drug, initially licensed for the treatment of adult atopic dermatitis, a chronic and debilitating form of eczema believed to affect several hundred thousand people, has also been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of other inflammatory diseases.
Potential competitors of Dupixent have encountered difficulties, leaving the French group free to exploit its cash cow
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