October 13, 2014
By Krystle Vermes, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Today, Sanofi announced that it has appointed Tarja Stenvall as the new general manager of its operations in Ireland and the U.K. Stenvall has served as country president for Belgium and Ireland while working at AstraZeneca PLC , a rival biopharmaceutical company. She will be replacing Steve Oldfield at Sanofi, who has spent five years in the GM role over the course of his 20-year career at the company.
“We are excited to bring Tarja on board as a new memberof the European Leadership Team,” David Loew, senior VP of commercial operations in Europe, told PM Live. “Her broad experience in diverse markets will ensure she can lead our UK and Ireland affiliates to provide a solid contribution to patients’ needs in those two markets.”
In addition to working at AstraZeneca, Stenvall has also worked at Pfizer as the marketing director for its operations in Finland.
Progression on the Sinusitis Front
As transitions occur within its staff, Sanofi continues to move forward and make notable progress on its drug testing projects. More specifically, the company recently announced the results of a phase 2a proof of concept study that looks at dupilumab, an investigational therapy for patients living with moderate-to-severe chronic sinusitis.
On Sept. 30, Sanofi and its study partner, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , revealed data that showed that dupilumab could potentially be a viable treatment for the nasal condition. The drug met all primary and secondary endpoints within the phase 2a study.
“These data suggest the potential of dupilumab for use in the treatment of another allergic inflammatory condition,” said Gianluca Pirozzi, M.D., PhD, Vice President, GlobalProject Head at Sanofi. “Based on these results, we plan to move forward with further clinical development of dupilumab in patients with chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps, in addition to the ongoing development in atopic dermatitis and in asthma.”
In the study, researchers found that dupilumab could statistically improve the size of nasal polyps in patients with moderate-to-severe chronic sinusitis. The most common adverse side effects reported with the drug were nasopharyngitis, oropharyngeal pain, epistaxis, headache and dizziness.
“There is growing recognition that patients suffering from one type of allergic disease often have additional allergic conditions,” said Neil Graham, Vice President of Program Management at Regeneron. “For example, many patients with chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps also have asthma or atopic dermatitis and vice versa. The new data reported today, together with prior Phase 2 data with dupilumab in asthma and atopic dermatitis, support the growing body of scientific evidence that these conditions may result from a core allergic inflammatory process driven by the IL-4/IL-13 pathway.”
