Viehbacher sets out vision for diversified Sanofi-Aventis
pharmafile | February 11, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Sanofi
Sanofi-Aventis's new chief executive Chris Viehbacher has presented his vision to renew the company, which will include greater investment in non-prescription business sectors, and greater focus on emerging markets.
Viehbacher stressed that he had been at the helm for only 10 weeks, but his leadership is already making a noticeable impact in how the company positions itself.
The company's press and analysts meetings have previously been conducted in French, but Viehbacher and his executive now fielded all questions in English.
Sanofi-Aventis's chairman Jean-Francois Dehecq, once the driving force behind the company was also absent, signalling that Viehbacher is in sole charge of the company's strategic direction.
The keynote of the new chief executive's vision was diversification in the companys business model. Viehbacher said pharma had focused on developing small molecule drugs for a western population, and now needed to become truly global in outlook, and look beyond the small sliver of the world's population currently targeted.
This would mean moving away from the blockbuster model, and Viehbacher said no pharma company had ever managed to move smoothly from one blockbuster to another without patent expiry problems.
"I don't believe that the blockbuster model is dead - I just don't believe that you can bet the ranch on delivering products of that value," he said.
He admitted that Sanofi faces problems in the next few years, with more than 20% of sales at risk from generics in the period from 2009-2013.
“Although we have a lot of exciting products in development, they are not going to be able to compensate for the loss of revenues.”
Outside the prescription pharmaceutical business, Sanofi has four further divisions - vaccines (Sanofi-Pasteur MSD) animal health (Merial), an OTC portfolio and its Winthrop generics business.
Income from all these divisions is around 7.5 billion euros annually, just a fraction of the 22 billion euros generated by prescription drugs, but Viehbacher indicated that strong organic growth and further acquisitions in these areas would boost their contribution in the coming years.
Distaste for mergers
Asked whether he would categorically rule out a mega merger Viehbacher said: "You can never say never, but it is certainly not my area of focus at the moment."
He added that he had personally experienced two such large scale mergers, but found the process had sapped the organisations creativity and productivity.
But he said there were many companies in the small to medium scale that Sanofi would be interested in acquiring.
R&D reorganisation
The company also announced significant reorganisation in its R&D operations, with more than 30 molecules deemed not sufficiently viable and cut from development.
A comprehensive R&D reorganisation will be announced in April, with further cuts and rationalisation expected, and the possible introduction of external experts to help evaluate a pipeline drugs potential value.
Two new posts have been created to this end. Jean-Pierre Lehner, previously head of medical & regulatory affairs will take up the post of chief medical officer. The role will involve monitoring benefit/risk in pipeline and marketed drugs. The new position reflects the companys recent troubles with Acomplia, which was pulled from the market after growing concerns about its depression side-effects.
Meanwhile Dr Elias Zerhouni has been appointed to the new role of scientific advisor. A former director of the US government research institute the NIH, Zerhouni most recently worked with the Gates Foundation on developing new drugs for poorer nations.
Viehbacher says the role will centre on helping the company hit the right balance between in-house R&D and external partnerships and focused on a broad range of global health priorities.
2008 Results
Sales rose 3.7% for year, and 3.8% for the fourth quarter of 2008, thanks to the double digit growth of Lovenox, Plavix, Lantus, Aprovel and Taxotere.
The company forecasts its earnings per share for 2009 to grow by at least 7%, barring major problems, such as the launch of a generic rival to Lovenox.
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