November 13, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
With the ouster of CEO Christopher Viehbacher in October, the Paris-based Sanofi Board of Directors has a lot of work cut out for it explaining their future strategies at an upcoming investor meeting.
Although Viehbacher butted heads with the board, he was popular with shareholders because he doubled the company’s stock value in the eight years he helmed the company. Sanofi is currently being run by Chairman Serge Weinberg while a new chief executive search continues.
Although shareholders are understandably curious about the company’s direction, Weinberg has publicly stated that any pending financial guidance will wait for annual results in February 2015.
“Chris Viehbacher had a very clear strategy,” said Andrea Williams, European fund manager at Royal London Asset Management in a statement. “And all of that is kind of up in the air now.”
On Nov. 20, Sanofi plans to hold an investor seminar on new medicines. The seminar will be at the U.S. headquarters of Genzyme. It will present next year’s product launches, which include a first ever vaccine against dengue fever, as well as injectable alirocumab for lowering cholesterol, and dupilumab for allergies.
Of particular interest to investors is what Sanofi intends to do in the diabetes market. In October the company’s diabetes-related sales inexplicably slowed, dropping from 15 percent growth in the first half of the year to 8 percent in the third quarter. Sanofi executives suggested that its competitors’ aggressive discounting in the U.S. market was a factor. It’s primary competitor is Denmark’s Novo Nordisk.
Lantus, the company’s premier diabetic medication, has annual sales of $7.7 billion. Its patent protection ends in February 2015. Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim are planning a generic version, Abasria. However, Sanofi has sued for patent infringement, which will likely delay Abasria’s U.S. launch until the end of 2016.
Reportedly one of the major sticking points between Viehbacher and the Sanofi board were his plans to sell off Sanofi’s portfolio of mature drugs for an estimated $7.9 billion. There were about 200 drugs in the portfolio, many of them with expiring patents. Drugs included were Dapekine for epilepsy, Plavix, a blood thinner, and antibiotic Pyostacine.
Shareholders, clearly, want Weinberg and the Sanofi leadership to reassure them. “They have a lot going for them. It’s not a bad company,” said Geir Lode, head of Hermes Global Equities in a statement. “It’s all about clarification. I feel like I’m walking in the fog now, I see nothing and I need the sun to come out.”
