Sanofi targets ground-breaking therapies with a new R&D strategy

"We are sharpening our R&D focus on first-in-class or best-in-class medicines and vaccines in order to address the world's most urgent healthcare needs", said John Reed, executive vice-president and head of Global R&D of Sanofi. He emphasized Sanofi's scientific mission when talking about the company's R&D strategy, "because patients are counting on us."

Reed, formerly the head of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), joined Sanofi in 2018, where he participated in and witnessed a crucial strategic transformation of the company.

As an essential step in Sanofi's "Play to Win" strategy, announced in 2019, the company launched a new brand identity and purpose to highlight its corporate mission "Chase the miracles of science to improve people's lives" early this year.

Companies that implement rebranding will often make key strategic adjustments, and Sanofi is no exception. As an R&D-driven pharmaceutical company, Sanofi has made the transformation of its R&D strategy central to its rebranding initiatives.

"The pursuit of scientific miracles is a dynamic process, and the process of R&D is challenging, but we don't let the setbacks deter us from pushing forward and working to improve the lives of patients," Reed said.

A new transformation, a new ambition

Founded in 1973, Sanofi is a young global pharmaceutical company. In the past several decades, it has developed many breakthrough therapies, including Lantus (insulin glargine), Taxotere (anti-cancer drug), Lovenox (anti-coagulant), Aubagio (multiple sclerosis), and Cerezyme (Gaucher disease).

For almost half a century, Sanofi has been protecting lives with its vaccines, saving and transforming lives with its cutting-edge science, from primary care to the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. It took Sanofi only 32 years to go from being a small company to being one of the top pharmaceutical giants in the world, an astonishingly rapid ascent compared with century-old pharmaceutical companies.

Despite such extraordinary past achievements, Sanofi is reflecting on the most urgent healthcare needs which have yet to be resolved. Can innovation and R&D be refocused? Can products have greater clinical value? How to sustain long-term growth? According to Reed, Sanofi has strictly prioritized and reallocated resources for R&D.

Based on its expertise and experience with preventing and treating conditions from chronic diseases to rare diseases, Sanofi further optimizes resources to sharpen its R&D focus to first-in-class or best-in-class programs in vaccines and specialty care areas like immunology and oncology, where recent breakthroughs open up a world of new therapeutic opportunities.

A sign of Sanofi's progress is that in 2021 it added 36 phase I and phase II clinical development programs, a clear indication of its strong pipeline of early-stage projects. The company is also investing more in biologics – seen in the fact that they now represent over 70 percent of its pipeline.

According to Reed, Sanofi has prioritized multiple potentially transformative therapies in areas of high unmet patient need, including Dupixent, the world's first targeted biological agent that has been approved for treating moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, Fitusiran and Efanesoctocog alfa (BIVV001) for treatment of hemophilia, Amlitelimab for treatment of inflammatory disorders, Amcenestrant for treatment of breast cancer, RSV Vaccine Nirsevimab, and Tolebrutinib for treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Sanofi's changes are also evident in its financial performance. In the newly released 2021 annual financial report, specialty medicine has become Sanofi's most prominent business unit by sales for the first time, with R&D investment in specialty drug products accounting for 95 percent of the company's total R&D investment, up by about 50 percent from that of 2017.