May 23, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
PARIS – Sanofi has shuffled around some of its top leaders in support of its 2020 strategic roadmap as three executives, including Pascale Witz, executive vice president of diabetes and cardiovascular, have announced their intentions leave the company.
Witz, who joined Sanofi in 2013, has been a driver of the company’s focus on an integrated care approach, Olivier Brandicourt, Sanofi’s chief executive officer said in a statement. During her three years at Sanofi, Witz’s accomplishments featured the signing of important strategic collaborations, including one with Verily Life Sciences (a subsidiary of Google to develop diabetes therapies and monitors as well as an agreement to develop diabetes drugs with Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, a deal which was valued at $4.2 billion.
In addition to Witz, Sanofi said Carsten Hellmann, executive vice president of Merial, Sanofi’s animal health division, has accepted a position as president and CEO of ALK, but will stay with Sanofi until the end of the year to support its strategic business swap project with Boehringer Ingelheim. In December, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to an asset swap, trading Merial for BI’s consumer healthcare unit. Sanofi said it plans to tap a leader for the new division later this year. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Sanofi’s third major departure is Suresh Kumar, executive vice president of external affairs, who is leaving Sanofi and returning to the United States for personal reasons, the company said. Given the challenging U.S. operating environment and impending change in government leadership, Suresh has agreed to continue to represent Sanofi’s interest in the U.S. until year end, the company said. Brandicourt will serve as acting head of external affairs until a replacement is found to succeed Suresh.
With the loss of the three company leaders, Sanofi has reshaped its leadership board. On June 1, the board will have some different faces on it. The new board will include:
• Olivier Charmeil, executive vice president and general manager of Sanofi’s General Medicines and Emerging Markets division.
• Jérôme Contamine, executive vice president of finance.
• Peter Guenter, executive vice president and general manager of diabetes and cardiovascular. Guenter will take over for the departing Witz.
• Carsten Hellmann, executive vice president and general manager of Merial (until Dec. 31).
Karen Linehan, executive vice president of legal affairs and general counsel.
• David Loew, executive vice president and general manager of Sanofi Pasteur. Loew is new to the board.
• Philippe Luscan, executive vice president of global industrial affairs.
• Muzammil Mansuri, executive vice president of strategy and business development.
• David Meeker, executive vice president and general manager of Sanofi Genzyme.
• Ameet Nathwani, executive vice president of medical affairs.
• Roberto Pucci, executive vice president of human resources.
• Elias Zerhouni, president of global research and development.
Sanofi is currently carrying out its threats for a hostile takeover of Bay Area’s Medivation. Despite repeated rejections by that company’s board of directors on a possible merger, Sanofi said it plans to nominate eight directors to replace Medivation’s current board and has also filed pre-merger notifications with the Federal Trade Commission. In a letter sent to Medivation, Sanofi indicates it had discussed the acquisition with top Medivation shareholders and believes there is “overwhelming support by your shareholders for a transaction”—which has most likely lead to the company making the threat to replace the board of directors.
Sanofi, and other companies that have expressed interest in Medivation, are interested in the company’s prostate drug, Xtandi. Sales of Xtandi grew 73 percent in the U.S. in 2015 and 116 percent globally. Medivation also has at least two additional oncology drugs in its pipeline, pidilizumab to treat B-cell lymphoma and other blood cancers, and talazoparib for breast cancer. Talazoparib is considered a possible blockbuster—over $1 billion in annual sales.
