Sanofi Names New Pharma Research Head as CEO Moves to Speed Up Pipeline — Update

By Adria Calatayud

Sanofi said it named Paulo Fontoura as new head of pharmaceutical research & development, as the French drugmaker's recently appointed chief executive moves to speed up its medicine pipeline after recent setbacks.

Fontoura will replace Houman Ashrafian, who decided to pursue an opportunity outside Sanofi, the company said Monday. His appointment is effective Sept. 1, it added.

A neurologist by training, Fontoura was most recently chief medical officer of Xaira Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on using artificial intelligence to discover and develop new medicines, Sanofi said. He spent more than 15 years at Roche before that, holding several roles including that of head of development for neuroscience, immunology, ophthalmology, and infectious and rare diseases.

Ashrafian led Sanofi's research-and-development efforts over the past three years, having joined from healthcare investor SV Health Investors.

Shares in Sanofi were 3.5% lower in European afternoon trading.

The change comes after Belen Garijo, the former CEO of Germany's Merck KGaA, took the helm of Sanofi last month. Sanofi's board tasked Garijo with strengthening the company's performance and refining its spending priorities at a time when the loss of patent protection for blockbuster drug Dupixent--developed jointly with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals--looms on the horizon.

Some of Sanofi's drug candidates missed their targets in late-stage trials, complicating the company's efforts to find new medicines to replace the sales generated by Dupixent, which accounted for more than a third of the group's total last year and is due to lose a key U.S. patent in 2031.

The company said earlier this month it would stop a late-stage study of an experimental treatment for a rare immune disorder after concluding the drug was unlikely to deliver sufficient efficacy. The move followed other studies looking at experimental treatments for diseases including multiple sclerosis, eczema and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease that either missed their goals or achieved weaker-than-expected results.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 22, 2026 08:11 ET (12:11 GMT)