Sanofi is considering “moonshot” treatments among the potential acquisition targets needed for the French pharma to urgently replenish its pipeline, the company’s Chief Financial Officer François-Xavier Roger has told Fierce.
With the U.S. patent on the immunology megablockbuster Dupixent set to expire in 2031, time is running out for Sanofi to find a source of revenue to plug the gap. A number of promising assets have already flamed out in the clinic, resulting in a changeover of leadership at the company earlier this year.
Talking to journalists on a third-quarter earnings call on Friday morning, Sanofi CFO Roger made no secret of the fact that the company needs to import drugs that could start generating revenue sooner rather than later.
“We will pursue external growth opportunities through [business development] and M&A, leveraging our strong cash flow and balance sheet,” Roger explained.
“We have an increased interest in late-stage and commercial medicines in our core disease areas, complemented with disciplined built-in acquisitions of early-stage projects,” the CFO added.
While Roger suggested the Paris-based pharma will “share more on these priorities by the end of the year,” he clarified to Fierce that this doesn’t mean we should expect a major deal in the next two months.
“We are interested in external growth opportunities, BD and M&A, with probably [a] larger amount than we thought potentially,” he explained.
The company is focused on its core areas of interest, but Roger suggested the pharma would also be willing to look further afield.
“We could consider potentially what we call white spaces or moonshots with unmet medical needs, and so we are looking at a certain number of areas,” the CFO added. “But do not expect necessarily big moves in the short term in these areas, but more focused on leveraging and capitalizing on our strengths in immunology, rare diseases, and vaccines.”
Sanofi certainly has the cash to fuel a potential M&A spree, with Regeneron-partnered Dupixent sales jumping 34.8% to 5.7 billion euros ($6.4 billion) year-over-year in the third quarter.
The pharma has already made one attempt to shore up its pipeline since CEO Belén Garijo, M.D., Ph.D., took over, via a $1 billion upfront deal with Regeneron for a quartet of immunology programs. However, only one of these drugs was already in clinical development at the time of the announcement.
While Garijo’s arrival was followed by a slimming down of the company’s pipeline—removing the likes of amlitelimab, balinatunfib and itepekimab—Roger said this morning that there are “no plans for major restructuring.”
“It's less a matter of cutting costs, and it's more a matter of getting something out of the investment that we do,” he explained on the call.
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