Sanofi profit rises on blockbuster drug in lift for incoming CEO

[LONDON] Sanofi reported better-than-expected profit, setting a positive tone for incoming CEO Belen Garijo, as she confronts the challenge of rejuvenating the drugmaker’s pipeline of new medicines.

Its earnings per share, excluding some items, were 1.88 euros in the first quarter, the Paris-based company said on Thursday (Apr 23). That is higher than the consensus forecast of 1.78 euros in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Sales also topped estimates at 10.5 billion euros (S$15.7 billion), exceeding analysts’ projection of 10.2 billion euros.

Its revenue from top-selling skin and asthma drug Dupixent continued to expand, surging by 31 per cent to 4.2 billion euros. The drugmaker reiterated its guidance for the year, including high single-digit percentage sales growth.

Merck’s Garijo – a former senior manager at Sanofi and one of pharmaceutical’s few female top executives – will join the company around end-April. This comes after former CEO Paul Hudson was ousted in February for failing to bring new medicines to market quickly enough.

The French company is facing a patent expiry of Dupixent early next decade, and has been unable to come up with a credible plan to replace revenues from the medicine.

During his tenure, Hudson tried to boost research and development by channelling more cash into the drugmaker’s scientific endeavours. Yet, the extra money has not paid off.

A string of mixed and negative trial results have weighed on the stock, which has fallen around 13 per cent in the past 12 months.

Under Hudson, Sanofi moved to become more efficient, chief financial officer Francois Roger said on Thursday.

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Roger acknowledged scientific setbacks in 2025, but said “in R&D, you need to look at that (in) the long term”. The drugmaker also has multiple assets in the portfolio, he added, and was not relying on one single drug.

Investors have said that the biggest challenge Garijo faced was to boost R&D productivity. Before joining Merck in 2011, she spent 15 years at Sanofi, including overseeing the integration of specialty care unit Genzyme.

L’Oreal, the company’s biggest shareholder, played a key role in the ouster of Hudson and the choice of his successor, it was reported. BLOOMBERG