Sanofi welcomes incoming CEO with sales lift

Sanofi's new chief executive, Belén Garijo, will see her tenure at the company kick-started by a strong 2026 first quarter, with a healthy rise in revenues driven by immunology blockbuster Dupixent and newly acquired hepatitis B vaccines.

At constant exchange rates, Sanofi's revenues grew 13.6% in the first three months of the year to just over €10.5 billion, with cash-cow product Dupixent (dupilumab) showing no signs of slowing down after almost a decade on the market – climbing 30.8% to €4.2 billion.

Last year's $2.5 billion acquisition of Dynavax started to deliver, with a 2.1% rise in vaccine sales to €1.3 billion, driven by the addition of the Heplisav-B range of adult hepatitis B shots.

There were also encouraging signs that Sanofi's reliance on Dupixent could start to diminish, as a cadre of more than half a dozen more recently launched products – including long-acting haemophilia A therapy Altuviiio (efanesoctocog alfa) and type 1 diabetes therapy Tzield/Teizeild (teplizumab) – which grew nearly 50% to €1.1 billion.

Former Merck KGaA CEO Garijo is due to take up the reins of Sanofi next week, on 29th April, after being named to replace Paul Hudson, whose contract expired in February after six years in the role and was not renewed.

There were reports that Sanofi's board was unhappy with a big increase in R&D spending under Hudson, preparing the company for the loss of patent protection for Dupixent around the start of the 2030s, which had not delivered as hoped.

Interim CEO Olivier Charmeil, who also serves as head of general medicines at the group, said business development had mirrored the financial success of the first quarter, with five regulatory approvals – for Dupixent, Tzeild, and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) treatment Rezurock – plus positive data in a phase 3 trial of venglustat in Gaucher disease and a mid-stage study of lunsekimig in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP).

At the same time, venglustat failed a trial in Fabry disease while lunsekimig missed the mark in atopic dermatitis, taking some of the shine off those projects.

"We reiterate our guidance for 2026: we continue to expect sales to grow by a high single-digit percentage and business EPS to grow slightly faster than sales, at constant exchange rates, delivering profitable growth," he added.

As Garijo takes over, the company is anticipating a string of other approvals this year, including for oral BTK inhibitor tolebrutinib in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), a subcutaneous formulation of multiple myeloma therapy Sarclisa (isatuximab), and a new rabies vaccine codenamed SP0087.