ASCO 2021: Advancing science together to combat cancer

Where will you be early June? My body will be in Paris, but my mind will be in Chicago.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2021 Annual Meeting, which usually brings together thousands of people and top scientific minds at a conference center in Chicago, will for the second year in a row be a fully virtual event. With other Sanofi leaders and industry peers, I’ll jump through virtual meetings to learn about latest research for cancer treatments and highlight our own scientific progress.

Medical Congresses 2.0

Though it’s been over a year since the pandemic upended life around the globe, I continue to be impressed by the agility that all stakeholders—medical associations, healthcare professionals, academics, industry—have shown in maintaining these essential scientific exchanges.

Make no mistake: I truly miss the social interactions and the kind of serendipity that can emerge from an unplanned conversation. But sharing clinical data and research findings virtually has become routine over the past year, making it much easier to include healthcare professionals who would normally have been unable to travel and attend the meeting.

I am hopeful that we will find the perfect “hybrid” model in the coming years, so we can make the most of both in-person and virtual interactions. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.

Our growing momentum to tackle difficult-to-treat cancers

ASCO 2021 is an important moment for the oncology community. For us, it is an opportunity to highlight the significant progress in our oncology pipeline. Over the past few years, the company has brought some of the best scientists onboard and made smart, strategic decisions to build solid foundations, rejuvenate the pipeline, and move us closer to our goal of improving the lives of patients around the world.

The sharpened focus of our R&D efforts on key areas, including multiple myeloma and skin, lung, and breast cancers, is indeed starting to pay off. We are for example looking for new ways to tackle estrogen receptor (ER)-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC), which represents roughly 75% of all breast cancers. One of our most promising investigational molecules–a homegrown asset–is designed to identify and destroy those estrogen receptors.

There is so much excitement around ASCO, so if your agenda allows, I encourage you to register to the LinkedIn live event featuring a discussion with Sanofi scientist Maysoun Shomali and patient advocate Jamil Rivers, Founder and CEO of The Chrysalis Initiative.

Breaking new scientific ground for patients

The progress made by our molecular oncology teams in breast cancer is the result of years, even decades, of hard work. But many challenges remain. Against any enemy like cancer, the way forward is to find new ways of attacking malignant cells—for example, by developing molecules that attack and destroy cancer cells or that harness the power of the immune system.

Inventing the next generation of cancer medicines will require us to continuously improve our understanding of disease biology, and to arm our scientists with the most diverse “toolbox” of technologies they can leverage in the discovery process.

After 30 years in the industry, I don’t think I have ever been so impressed by how scientists combine their knowledge of disease with technological platforms, such as antibody-drug conjugates, gene editing, and synthetic biology, to advance science for patients. When I look at the current and emerging future landscape of cancer research, I get an enormous sense of excitement knowing that we are on the brink of meaningful, paradigm-shifting breakthroughs.  

Our long-term vision as a company is to change the practice of medicine to the benefit of patients, and the work we do in oncology is clearly an important element of this vision. We are making steady progress but, against a wily enemy like cancer, we will always need to set our sights higher.

This article refers to Sanofi products that are currently under development. The safety and efficacy of these investigational drugs has not been evaluated by any regulatory authority.