You recently took on new professional responsibilities in Canada; how does your appointment fit in the wider global plan for Sanofi?
I have been working for twenty-two years for this company in France, and it is the first time that I am taking charge of a country. In my previous role, I got to see the beginning of our new ambitious global strategy, called ‘play to win,’ which was developed and launched by our CEO, Paul Hudson, in 2019. I was lucky to be part of the launch of this global strategy, so I guess I have the understanding and commitment to support its deployment in Canada.
The strategy is built on our vision to focus on ‘first in class or best in class’ products to serve patients’ needs and represents an important evolution for Sanofi. Today, based on phase 3 trial results, if a treatment is not bringing enough added value vs the treatment of reference, we will reallocate our resources to other assets. Bearing this in mind, today we are prioritising speciality care therapies, like immunology, and vaccines.
What are the research tendencies that you want to follow at Sanofi in the years to come?
Sanofi’s goal is to become the industry leader in immunology.
Our strategy is based on finding treatments for type 2 inflammatory diseases. It is the reason we put so much effort into Dupixent, jointly developed with Regeneron.
This product already helps more than 500,000 patients globally suffering from diseases such as atopic dermatitis, asthma, and prurigo nodularis. This is only a start since we expect new indications in the coming years - it truly is an exceptional molecule with an incredible potential. To me, this is a once in a career opportunity to work on such a drug.
Would you say that is due to the new strategy you were referring to previously?
I do think so, yes. The execution of the strategy is based on the ability to make clear choices. For example, we had great hopes for a new treatment against breast cancer. But our phase 3 trial did not meet our expectations. Sanofi therefore made the decision to discontinue the global clinical development program. While maintaining our commitment to oncology, we reallocated the resources to other promising assets. We must go where unmet needs remain, where we can bring more value to patients. I am absolutely confident in our capacity to achieve those goals.
What is the Clinical Study Unit and what is its importance?
Here in Canada, our Clinical Study Unit (CSU) is very performant. In 2022, the team conducted 69 clinical trials in five different therapeutic areas, in more than 340 different sites and with about 1000 patients involved in these trials. The CSU is integrated in a unique ecosystem that includes our R&D centre, vaccine manufacturing site, commercial operations, and global artificial intelligence hub which was recently created in Toronto.
With operations of such scale in Canada, is the collaboration with the regulatory authorities and policy makers proving to be supportive?
We have an outstanding Public Affairs team who has been working for years with the Canadian authorities. Sanofi Canada has been working with the authorities for a long time and managed to forge a strong collaboration and constructive dialogue. Our focus for the next few years is to maintain this essential bond. In Canada, access to medication is an important topic. Sanofi works closely with authorities to ensure timely access for patients, bringing innovative treatments to Canadians patients.
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