Our journey to become a science-led company

Almost four years ago exactly, we presented a six-year strategy aimed at putting Sanofi back on the map of the most innovative pharma companies in the industry.

It was a different world then and we were a different company. Four years later, we’ve made more progress than I could have ever imagined, and we are closer than ever to becoming the Sanofi we aspire to be.

Today we are providing insights about our ambitions to become a science-led company. How? By charting a new scientific course in immunology, taking ambitious shots on goal for patients, and unlocking the potential of technology and Artificial Intelligence in R&D.

A new scientific course in immunology

Since 2020, our R&D teams have been moving fast to reshape our pipeline. We have had major successes, as well as some setbacks – all part of our journey in trying to do things never done before for patients.

One of the areas where we are clearly focused is immunology. Building on our longstanding expertise in vaccines to protect the immune system and our recently developed expertise in addressing chronic inflammatory diseases with medicines, we have expanded our immunology focus to adjacent areas connected to the immune system, including neuro-inflammation, transplant and type 1 diabetes.

Building an industry-leading immunology pipeline able to deliver a steady and sustainable stream of molecules takes determination and time. Whilst the solid foundations we built since 2020 allowed us to roughly quadruple the value of our pipeline, we’ll keep pushing ourselves forward, in line with our company’s purpose.

Ambitious shots on goal for patients

Since early 2023, Sanofi has had the most productive scientific news flow in its history, with promising results for many early and mid-stage molecules addressing serious, chronic diseases. This allows us to move toward building a development-driven organization, with the hope to turn up the dial on turning breakthrough research into realities for patients.

Over the next couple of years, we’ll step up our investments to increase our phase 3 projects by 50%, including 10 trials expected to start next year for assets that could potentially transform the practice of medicine for multiple diseases.

Since 2020, we have been able to make a positive difference in the life of millions of people by launching therapies for diseases like hemophilia A, atopic dermatitis, asthma and respiratory syncytial virus. Looking ahead, we’ll keep doubling down in these diseases and continue expanding our focus on multiple sclerosis, and in newer areas like COPD and T1 diabetes, amongst others.

Technology and AI in R&D

We are also going “all in” on Artificial Intelligence. Not because AI has become a trendy topic, but because we clearly see its long-term value and in fact have just scratched the surface of how we use this disruptive technology to achieve our scientific ambitions.

For example, AI-enabled screening can sift through billions of possible molecules, helping our scientists to shorten the search to find disease drivers and potential drug candidates. AI-driven patient segmentation can help improve the design of clinical studies. Large Language Models can accelerate the drafting of regulatory reports…and there are countless other ways in which AI can and already is being applied across our value chain.

That includes how we are leveraging AI to transform how we manage our R&D portfolio. Our in-house Plai app, which correlates more than 1 billion data points, empowers our R&D teams by giving them unique insights to help them make better, faster and smarter decisions every day.

Yes, we’ve come a long way since 2020, and yes, we still have a long way to go. But we at Sanofi remain steadfast in our commitment to make the right choices for the long-term future of this great company, driven by our ambition to transform the practice of medicine for people around the world.