Sanofi

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Sanofi

logo
legal form Société Anonyme
ISIN FR0000120578
founding 2004
Seat Paris , FranceFranceFrance 
management Paul Hudson
Number of employees > 100,000
sales 36.1 billion euros (2019)
Branch pharmacy
Website www.sanofi.com ,
www.sanofi.de
Status: 2019

Sanofi (Sanofi-aventis Groupe) is a French pharmaceutical company created in 2004 through the merger of Sanofi-Synthélabo and Aventis .

With sales of 36.1 billion euros in 2019 and more than 100,000 employees worldwide, Sanofi is one of the largest pharmaceutical groups in the world in terms of sales. The Sanofi Genzyme division (which was acquired in 2011), which is part of Sanofi, had sales of 9.2 billion euros in 2019. A company of the Sanofi Group in Germany is A. Nattermann & Cie. GmbH. Sanofi has 73 industrial sites in 32 countries.

In the Forbes Global 2000 of the largest listed companies, Sanofi ranks 117th (as of FY 2017). The company had a market value of around USD 95 billion in mid-2018.

history

Sanofi was created in June 2004 from a merger of the two French pharmaceutical companies Sanofi-Synthélabo and Aventis and was renamed Sanofi-Aventis . Both predecessor companies also emerged from mergers in 1999: Sanofi-Synthélabo from the two French companies Sanofi (previously part of the oil company Elf Aquitaine ) and Synthélabo , which belonged to the cosmetics group L'Oréal , and Aventis from the merger of the German Hoechst AG (Frankfurt am Main) with the French pharmaceutical company Rhône-Poulenc (Lyon).

The merger among equals was preceded in January 2004 by a hostile takeover offer from Sanofi-Synthélabo to the Aventis shareholders. Although Aventis was more than twice the size of Sanofi-Synthélabo in terms of sales, the market value of both companies was roughly the same before the takeover offer. Aventis initially rejected the offer as insufficient and looked for alternatives. After massive interventions by the French government under the leadership of the then French “super minister” for economics, finance and industry, Nicolas Sarkozy , which put a strain on Franco-German relations , the two companies finally agreed on an improved offer on April 26, 2004, which ran until August 2004 was accepted by over 95% of Aventis shareholders. In order to allay fears in the German public, the management of the new company promised to refrain from redundancies and site closures. After the merger, the listing of the shares of the once largest German pharmaceutical company Hoechst AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was discontinued in December 2004.

On August 29, 2010, Sanofi-Aventis announced that it would take over the American biotechnology company Genzyme for 18.5 billion US dollars. Sanofi-Aventis later increased the original tender offer from $ 69 to $ 74 in cash per share, representing an enterprise value of $ 20.1 billion. On February 15, 2011, both companies announced that they had agreed in principle on a takeover. Genzyme shareholders received additional payments of up to $ 14 per share, which were linked to the achievement of certain goals.

On April 4, 2011, Sanofi-Aventis announced the successful completion of the acquisition. In an interview with the radio station BFM TV , the then CEO Chris Viehbacher announced on this occasion that the company would only operate under the name of Sanofi from July 1, 2011 , provided that the shareholders approved this proposal at the general meeting. On May 6th, during the annual general meeting in Paris, the name change to Sanofi was decided by the shareholders and Sanofi-Aventis will operate as Sanofi from now on .

On January 2, 2017, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi confirmed the successful completion of the strategic business exchange between Sanofi's animal health business (Merial) and Boehringer Ingelheim's self-medication business (CHC) in most markets on January 1, 2017.

Until the end of 2016, Sanofi operated the European vaccines business in a joint venture with MSD Sharp & Dohme , which operated as Sanofi Pasteur MSD . Sanofi Pasteur and MSD will continue to pursue their vaccination strategies in Europe separately from one another and integrate their respective European vaccines business into their operations. This operational change took effect on January 1, 2017.

In August 2020, Sanofi announced that it would take over the US group Principia Biopharma for $ 3.7 billion.

Branch offices in Germany

The main office of Hoechst AG 1893.
The K703 office building - the headquarters of Sanofi in Germany in the Höchst industrial park - is home to the chairman of the management board and central administrative functions of Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH, such as the human resources, finance and communications departments.

The headquarters of the German subsidiary Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH is the Höchst industrial park in Frankfurt am Main , the former parent plant of Hoechst AG. In 2019, Sanofi achieved sales of 4.9 billion euros, of which 1.5 billion euros was attributable to domestic business, around 3.4 billion euros to intercompany sales, license income and the manufacture of active ingredients and finished pharmaceuticals for third-party customers.

Around 7,700 of the roughly 9,000 employees in Germany work in the Höchst industrial park. The Frankfurt-Höchst location is the largest integrated single location for research and development as well as production within the Sanofi Group. In Höchst, among other things, the insulin preparation insulin glargine ( Lantus ) is manufactured, which in 2014 was the fifth largest drug in the world.

In addition, Sanofi is represented in Germany in Berlin (marketing and sales center of the German company) with around 1250 employees and in Cologne (Nattermann). Both are locations of the former Sanofi-Synthélabo. In Neu-Isenburg, the employees work for the Sanofi Genzyme division - the Sanofi Specialty Care Business Unit.

Part of the group are the generics supplier Winthrop and the Cologne-based company A. Nattermann & Cie. GmbH.

research

By 2021, Sanofi plans to invest around 6 billion euros in research and development worldwide. The expenditures for sales, distribution and overhead costs amounted to 9.8 billion euros. Around 15,000 employees research and develop new drugs and vaccines in America, Europe and Asia.

Frankfurt-Höchst is a strategic research location for Sanofi and the only one in the group that seamlessly encompasses all steps of drug research and development, from functional genome analysis to clinical development . Nevertheless, there were significant job cuts between 2010 and 2012. This is due to the expansion of the veterinary branch and the increased collaboration with other companies, which is at the expense of in-house research. Around 600 of the around 1,700 positions previously in research and development have been cut. The group set up one of four research and development centers worldwide in Frankfurt.

Sanofi focuses on seven therapeutic areas:

Products

The top-selling products are Lantus , Plavix , Lovenox , Aprovel and Eloxatin , which together accounted for around 11 billion euros in sales in 2012.

Cardiovascula

Diabetes / metabolic diseases

The appetite suppressant Acomplia ( Rimonabant ) was withdrawn in October 2008 on the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency .

In December 2019, it was announced that Sanofi was withdrawing from diabetes research, mainly because its market share had decreased significantly since the expiry of the patent protection for the insulin analog Lantus.

Central nervesystem

oncology

thrombosis

Internal Medicine

dermatology

Vaccines

The vaccines are sold under the name Sanofi Pasteur.

criticism

Hoechst Marion Roussel (now part of the Sanofi group) and 38 other pharmaceutical companies sued the South African government for infringement of patent law. In 1997 it passed a law that allowed AIDS patients to be provided with cheaper generic drugs. The lawsuit was withdrawn on April 19, 2001. AIDS activists had accused the company of putting profits before lives.

There are also indications that Wikipedia articles on Sanofi have been purposefully changed by a consultant. The advisor denies this.

Genzyme , a company of the Sanofi Group, withdrew the cancer drug MabCampath ® ( alemtuzumab ) from the European market in August 2012 in order to bring the substance back onto the market under a new trade name and a different indication, namely multiple sclerosis (MS) bring. The Drugs Commission of the German Medical Association (AkdÄ) criticizes this decision of the voluntary withdrawal from the market and the planned “indication hopping” to the effect that the pharmaceutical company evades its responsibility in an unacceptable manner.

In 2014 it became known that the group had to pay a fine of 28 million euros as a secondary participant in connection with allegations of bribery. The corresponding suspicion was reported back in 2011. For years, Sanofi had brought drugs with an approaching expiry date to the market at low prices through the intermediaries MTI and Comas. When the matter threatened to be exposed, Sanofi filed a criminal complaint against the former partner. But in the end the tide turned against the group.

In 2015, the group came into the focus of the press, as Sanofi Austria tried to have the interaction risks associated with the preparation Novalgin removed from a database of the Austrian company Diagnosia. The group was accused of wanting to suppress negative information about the drug. The debate sparked a shit storm against the company through an article in the technology blog Techcrunch .

730,000 children were vaccinated against dengue fever in a vaccination program in the Philippines - the government stopped this program in 2017. The Ministry in Manila responded to the warning from Sanofi that the drug Dengvaxia vaccineeine could aggravate the disease . That could be the case if the patient had never suffered from dengue before.

In 2018, the production of Dépakine in Mourenx had to be stopped because the limit values ​​for the potentially carcinogenic bromopropane were exceeded by 190,000 times. Sanofi had found this in internal investigations at the end of 2017, but did not report it to the authorities. The citizens' initiative FNE therefore wants to file a criminal complaint.

Web links

Commons : Sanofi-Aventis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sanofi: Composition of Executive Committee. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b c Sanofi: Sanofi: a global healthcare leader. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
  3. a b c Sanofi: Sanofi delivers strong 2019 business EPS growth of 6.8% at CER. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
  4. a b Sanofi.de: Locations of Sanofi in Germany . 2020. Accessed April 30, 2020.
  5. ^ The World's Largest Public Companies . In: Forbes . ( forbes.com [accessed July 17, 2018]).
  6. ^ Agreement on the Sanofi-Aventis merger - Europe's largest pharmaceutical company. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .
  7. ^ Sanofi-aventis to Acquire Genzyme for $ 74.00 in Cash per Share Plus Contingent Value Right. In: sanofi.com. February 16, 2011, accessed February 16, 2011 .
  8. Press release of the Annual General Meeting on May 6, 2011 ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 27 kB)
  9. Sanofi.de: Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi confirm the conclusion of their swap deal on January 1, 2017 . 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  10. Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung online: The billions exchange is perfect . 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  11. Sanofi.de: Sanofi Pasteur and MSD end their joint vaccine business in Europe . 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  12. Doctors newspaper online: Sanofi Pasteur on his own way from January . 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  13. Pharmaceutical industry: Sanofi swallows US biotech company for $ 3.7 billion. Retrieved August 19, 2020 .
  14. a b c Sanofi.de: Sanofi in Germany . 2020. Accessed April 30, 2020.
  15. Statista: Top 50 pharmaceuticals worldwide according to sales in 2014 and forecast for 2020 . 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  16. Sanofi.de: Locations . 2020. Accessed April 30, 2020.
  17. ^ Sanofi: Income statements . See here the items “Research and development expenses” and “Selling and general expenses”. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  18. Sanofi.de: Data & Facts . 2020. Accessed April 30, 2020.
  19. FAZ: Sanofi is cutting a good quarter of the research positions. In: FAZ.net . November 2, 2011, accessed December 19, 2014 .
  20. ^ Sanofi: Sales by business and region. ( Memento of July 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  21. dpa: Sanofi is leaving diabetes research. In: Ärztezeitung. December 11, 2019, accessed December 12, 2019 .
  22. ChemManager 11–12 / 2013: Sanofi stops drug development , GIT-Verlag Darmstadt.
  23. Conflicting goals: Wikipedia author works for Sanofi-Aventis. In: Spiegel Online . July 10, 2011, accessed December 19, 2014 .
  24. ^ MabCampath ® market withdrawal (PDF; 114 kB) Information letter from Sanofi / Genzyme dated August 10, 2012
  25. Avoxa Media Group Deutscher Apotheker GmbH: Alemtuzumab: From Leukemia Drugs to MS Drugs. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .
  26. Information and statement from the AkdÄ on the withdrawal of MabCampath ® (alemtuzumab) from the AkdÄ newsletter of August 24, 2012
  27. Apotheke Adhoc: Bribery: Sanofi has to pay 28 million euros. Retrieved October 28, 2019 (German).
  28. See, for example, When medicines become junk goods , Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 20, 2011 (accessed on January 15, 2015); Vanishing Point North Korea , Der Spiegel , 25/2011, June 20, 2011, (accessed January 15, 2015).
  29. APOTHEKE ADHOC: The pawn sacrifice strikes back ( Memento from August 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  30. Pharmaceutical giant sued Viennese start-up companies. April 22, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .
  31. ben goldacre: Sanofi is suing decision support tool Diagnosia for daring to tell doctors about recognized side effects. Wow.http: //techcrunch.com/2015/04/14/big-pharma-small-startup/#.di4rsb: XKT6… In: @bengoldacre. April 15, 2015, accessed October 28, 2019 .
  32. Pharmaceutical company warns of its own vaccine - the population of the Philippines is outraged In: nzz.ch, December 4, 2017, accessed on December 4, 2017.
  33. Rudolf Balmer: Pollutants escaped at Sanofi: Pharmaceutical company has to close factory . In: The daily newspaper: taz . July 11, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed October 28, 2019]).

Coordinates: 48 ° 52 ′ 24.6 "  N , 2 ° 18 ′ 46.08"  E