The chief executive of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, Briton Paul Hudson, will leave his position on February 17, after the group's board of directors decided on Wednesday not to renew his term as a director, the group announced on Thursday.
His departure comes after recent setbacks in research and development (R&D) and a slumping stock market trajectory, with the share having lost approximately 13% on the Paris Stock Exchange in 2025.
The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a major transformation with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and personalized medicine, in a context of price pressures and tariffs imposed by the United States.
Sanofi, which lagged behind in the Covid-19 vaccine race, is seeking to develop new drugs to replace its flagship product, the anti-inflammatory Dupixent, which reached more than 15 billion in sales last year but will lose its patent in 5 years at the earliest.
Paul Hudson has been serving as Chief Executive Officer since September 1, 2019. Under his leadership, Sanofi has made a commitment to immunology – which deals with diseases of the immune system – and has increased investments to strengthen its R&D since 2023.
His tenure was marked by the sale last year of Sanofi's majority stake in Opella, which manufactures the iconic paracetamol Doliprane, for 10.7 billion euros to the American investment fund CD&R.
Her replacement, the current head of the German pharmaceutical group Merck KGaA, Belén Garijo, has been appointed CEO by the board of directors and "she will take up her duties at the end of the group's general meeting to be held on April 29," Sanofi added.
In the meantime, Olivier Charmeil, Executive Vice President General Medicine and member of the Executive Committee since 2011, will assume the role of interim Chief Executive Officer, Sanofi said in a statement.
Belén Garijo, a doctor of medicine and of Spanish nationality, will prioritize "strengthening the productivity, governance and innovation capacity of Research & Development" (R&D), as well as accelerating "the preparation for the future of the group," according to the press release.
– “Difficulties” –
"A possible change of leadership at Sanofi had been under discussion for some time, as the group's R&D strategy had encountered difficulties," Jefferies analysts wrote in a note.
The group has recently suffered setbacks, notably in a clinical trial of its drug candidate tolebrutinib for the treatment of the most common form of multiple sclerosis, which was inconclusive. Then, at the end of December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to approve the treatment for a less common form of the same disease.
In September, Sanofi's share price fell sharply after the results of a clinical study disappointed investors on its amlitelimab treatment for atopic dermatitis.
In May, the stock suffered from the failure of a clinical trial in the final stage before the commercialization of a potential treatment for smoker's bronchitis.
“Paul Hudson was quite the dream seller,” Jean-Louis Peyren, federal secretary of the Fnic-CGT union in charge of the pharmaceutical industry, told AFP.
“Instead of having a financier and someone who does more marketing than anything else, we can hope that if it’s a doctor, we’ll still be more focused on therapeutic needs than on finance,” he added regarding Belén Garijo.
English 
French