CIIE provides platform for Sanofi to exhibit its achievements

Sanofi sees the China International Import Expo as an attractive platform for the introduction of new products and extensive collaboration with regional companies.

Through its participation in the CIIE, Sanofi will shed light on its achievements in global research and development, advances in collaboration with partners across diverse industries, and long-term dedication to the healthcare journey for Chinese people as well as the overall contribution to China's healthcare system.

Sanofi will display a total of 23 strategic and innovative products in the field of immunological inflammation, rare diseases, chronic diseases and vaccines, and consumer healthcare.

In an interview with Shanghai Daily, Olivier Charmeil, Sanofi's Executive Vice President of General Medicines, stated that Sanofi is more than ever committed to deliver on its purpose in China and that by 2025, over two dozen new products will be introduced for patients to live healthier and longer lives.

Charmeil praised Shanghai's pioneering role in promoting innovation. "We see Shanghai as an ideal venue to pilot the digital transformation for our business unleashing the power of technologies, data, cloud, and artificial intelligence for improved healthcare delivery," he said.

Thanks to its efforts like Sanofi's Innovation Hub, which was established in the city in 2018, Shanghai serves as a model for any pioneering endeavors of Sanofi that may be executed on a national scale.

And the fact that Shanghai is home to the highest number of multinational regional headquarters and R&D centers in China speaks for itself.

This year is a special year as Sanofi celebrates its 40th anniversary of its entry into China. It now has a footprint spanning more than 2,000 counties and cities, with 12 offices, three manufacturing locations, four R&D centers, and one digital innovation center.

Sanofi will continue to drive efforts to improve the health of Chinese citizens by bringing best-in-class medications and vaccines to the market, while advancing scientific and digital solutions in support of the Healthy China 2030 project. By 2025, Sanofi intends to launch more than 25 innovative products in China to meet the growing health needs.

In its collective journey, local collaboration has borne fruits to encourage open innovation. And as part of it, the CIIE platform has served as an unique launchpad for many of Sanofi's important pharmaceutical products.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of recent illustrations bringing innovative medicines in China.

• Sanofi's chronic disease management innovation project signed with Shanghai Pudong Software Park at the 2020 CIIE has been successfully carried out as planned.

• With an investment of roughly 20 million euros per year planned over the next five years, the Sanofi Institute for Biomedical Research (SIBR) was inaugurated in Suzhou last year. It is the company's first institute outside of France, Germany, and the US and is an effort to promote science and hasten the discovery of new drugs to address a range of medical needs.

• After multiple sclerosis was added to the First Catalogue of Rare Diseases in 2018, Sanofi's Aubagio was approved by the FDA and released in China in just 58 days, making it the year's fastest introduction of a medicine for a rare disease.

• Aldurazyme for mucopolysaccharidosis I and Fabrazyme for Fabry disease are two other drugs that were introduced in China in the last three years. There are also innovative therapies for people with diabetes, cardiovascular illness, and hemophilia.

• Sanofi has forged key alliances with JD Health and Tencent for the treatment of chronic diseases and primary healthcare. Sanofi also announced a strategic collaboration in oncology with Innovent, aiming to accelerate oncology product development and access and bring innovative drugs to more Chinese patients.

• Agreements for cooperation with regional startups, such as ClouDr, were also struck in order to develop entirely digital patient experiences and advance healthcare digitization.

• Benefiting from the "spillover effect" of the expo, Dupixent®, a fully human monoclonal antibody, has been launched at "China speed": it was approved in 2020, two years earlier than planned, for the treatment of adults living with atopic dermatitis. It took only 25 days to achieve approval to supply and was covered by national health insurance within 5 months of launch. In 2021, Dupixent® was approved for the adolescent indication; this year, its indication was extended to the group of children aged 6 years and older, further reinforcing its favorable long-term safety profile for a broad age range.

Charmeil concluded that "China is at the heart of our global strategy. We are committed to our purpose: improving the health of the Chinese people through science and innovation by working together with our partners to support the reform and development of China's healthcare industry."