Delicate maneuver at Sanofi. A month and a half after suffering a severe setback on the stock market, the pharmaceutical laboratory is trying to restore investor confidence. This Thursday, December 7, its general director, Paul Hudson, accompanied by the new global head of R&D, Houman Ashrafian, embarked on a seduction operation in New York on the occasion of a day of presentation of the strategic orientations of the company in terms of research and development.
The meeting was particularly awaited by investors, heated by the group’s recent announcements. On October 27, Sanofi indicated, without revealing further details, that it wanted to strengthen its investments in research, thereby sacrificing the group’s profitability objectives for the next two years. The announcement, at the same time, of a savings plan of two billion euros in order to rationalize structural costs, and of the split of the general public health division, which brings together non-prescription medicines such as Doliprane, were not enough to calm the storm. Harshly sanctioned, the group’s action had plunged by 19%, erasing nearly 25 billion euros of market capitalization.
This Thursday, the boss of the French laboratory defended this strategic choice, arguing that it will prove to be a win-win ” long term “. The group plans to add more than 10 billion euros in annual turnover by 2030 thanks to recent launches – like its monoclonal antibody against bronchiolitis, Beyfortus, or Altuviio, its treatment against hemophilia –, and new products to come. “ We always wanted to get back to science. This is the only way to create a dynamic, exciting and value-generating future for our patients, our employees and our investors. », underlines Paul Hudson. To this end, the pharmaceutical group plans to spend nearly 700 million additional euros on drug development next year, with a clearly defined ambition: to make Sanofi a world champion in immunology.
An “unprecedented momentum”
The start of a new chapter after the chain restructurings carried out as part of its plan “Play to win” since 2019? In recent years, the French champion has hardly shone in his internal research. On Covid, he was defeated by the vaccines launched by the Pfizer-BioNTech duo and by Moderna. In breast cancer, its drug candidate, Amcenestrant, on which the laboratory based part of its hopes, fell through in 2022, due to lack of convincing results.
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