After more than 6 years at the helm of Sanofi, Paul Hudson will leave his position as CEO on February 17, as the board of directors of the French pharmaceutical group decided not to renew his term as a director.
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 announced Thursday in a statement.
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.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, around 11:10 AM, the share price fell by 5.20%, to 78.27 euros, after this announcement.
Belén Garijo, a doctor of medicine and of Spanish nationality, will prioritize accelerating "the preparation for the future of the group," according to the statement.
"She knows the Sanofi group very well, having held leading positions there for 15 years and achieved numerous successes," said Chairman of the Board Frédéric Oudéa, quoted in the press release.
British marketing executive Paul Hudson has been serving as chief executive since September 1, 2019.
His departure comes after recent setbacks in research and development (R&D) and a slumping stock market trajectory, with the stock having lost approximately 13% 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.
– “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 noted in a report.
Under Paul Hudson, Sanofi made a bet on immunology – which deals with diseases of the immune system – and increased investments from 2023 onwards to strengthen its R&D focused on innovative drugs and vaccines.
As part of this refocusing, last year it sold Sanofi's majority stake in Opella, which manufactures the iconic paracetamol Doliprane, for 10.7 billion euros to the American investment fund CD&R.
Upon his arrival as CEO from Novartis, Paul Hudson focused on the potential of the star anti-inflammatory drug Dupixent, aiming to expand sales and obtain new therapeutic authorizations – a successful gamble.
Launched on the market in 2018, this monoclonal antibody used in diseases of the skin, sinuses, esophagus, which represents a third of the turnover, achieved more than 15 billion euros in sales last year.
However, investors are questioning the post-Dupixent trajectory, as its first patent is due to expire in 2031, i.e. in five years, a very short horizon for an industry with very long cycles.
The pharmaceutical giant, which lagged behind in the Covid-19 vaccine race, needs to quickly develop new drugs to take over from its flagship product.
To mitigate the impact of this loss of exclusivity on its profitability, it made several acquisitions of biotech companies to get its hands on new molecules in advanced stages.
– “A seller of dreams” –
But 2025 was marked by several setbacks: its drug candidate tolebrutinib against multiple sclerosis suffered a double setback in December with the failure of an advanced clinical trial in the main form of this autoimmune disease and a refusal by the American drug agency to approve the treatment for another form of the disease.
Earlier in September, Sanofi's share price fell sharply after the results of a clinical trial 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 admitted at the end of January that he had expected faster progress.
"He was quite the dream seller," Jean-Louis Peyren, federal secretary of the Fnic-CGT union, in charge of the pharmaceutical industry, told AFP.
"We can hope" that Belén Garijo "will be more focused on health needs than on communication and finance," he added.
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