Sanofi Reshuffles, Ups Headcount of Diabetes Unit to Regain Ground Against Novo Nordisk A/S

February 6, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

PARIS -- To strengthen its U.S. diabetes operations, French drugmaker Sanofi replaced one-third of its sales managers in order to become more competitive with Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S

One of the key issues facing the company was poorer than expected sales for Lantus, the company’s top diabetes medication. Lantus lost ground in 2014 to Novo Nordisk’s Levemir insulin, which is less expensive. To prevent losing more market share to rival drugs, which Sanofi CEO Serge Weinberg said “has nothing to offer compared to Lantus,” the company restructured its sales force with a focus on training its staff to better present the medication to U.S. doctors. In a call with analysts, Weinberg was reported to have said sales managers in the United States “were not doing their jobs” and that the sales team relationship with physicians was inadequate when promoting medications like Lantus.

Those poor sales numbers for Lantus may have been instrumental in the October dismissal of former CEO Chris Viehbacher. He was terminated one day after the company predicted Lantus would deliver little growth in the years up to 2018. Additionally the company brought in Andrew Purcell as head of diabetes in the United States. He replaced Anne C. Whitaker, who left her role as President, North America Pharmaceuticals at Sanofi Aventis one month prior to the shakeup to take over the top spot at Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. .

Lantus generated approximately $7.1 billion in sales last year, a 3 percent increase over sales in 2013. Some of the company strategies are already beginning to yield positive results. In its fourth quarter report the company announced diabetes sales increased 11 percent and increased 12.1 percent for the year.

Lantus will begin to lose patent protection this year, according to news reports, but that is allowing Sanofi to explore new medications and partnerships with other drug companies, such as California-based MannKind Corporation . Sanofi is bringing MannKind’s inhaled insulin treatment Afrezza to market in the U.S. The deal between the two companies was worth about $925 million, with Sanofi taking a 65 percent stake in sales and giving MannKind about $200 million, according to reports. The drug has had difficulty getting approval, having been rejected twice by the federal U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But the medication is finally available for U.S. pharmacies. Afrezza, used for both type 1 and type 2 diabetics as a mealtime inhaled insulin, was approved by the FDA in 2014 and is being brought to market this month by Sanofi. Afrezza’s packaging makes it look like an asthma inhaler, easy to use and small enough for someone to carry in a pocket.

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