Sanofi will separate its Consumer Health division (Doliprane, Mucosolvan, etc.) by listing it separately on the stock market in 2024 to focus on new growth drivers in innovative medicines that it wants to finance through a savings plan.
The French pharmaceutical giant has decided to make Consumer Health “an autonomous global commercial entity within the group” through “the creation of a listed entity whose headquarters will be in France,” he announced. on the occasion of the presentation of its quarterly results.
Sanofi targets savings of up to 2 billion
“Subject to market conditions, the separation could be carried out at the earliest in the fourth quarter of 2024 after consultation with the social partners,” underlines the group. At the same time, Sanofi is targeting savings of up to 2 billion euros between 2024 and the end of 2025 and ensures that “the majority will be reallocated to financing innovation and growth engines”.
After these announcements, Sanofi’s action plunged by more than 15% on the Paris stock exchange, its biggest plunge in trading since 1997. These projects are also making the unions shout, which must participate in a meeting with management at 10:00 a.m. “It’s the price!. Every two years, since 2008, we have savings plans of between 1 and 2 billion euros” and “since 2008, 16 factories and research centers have disappeared from France, all that is is the result of savings plans,” enrages Jean-Louis Pérenne of CGT Sanofi. “But our leaders continue to make golden bridges to Sanofi” particularly in tax credits because “our leaders only love the shareholders,” he laments.
Accelerate investments in R&D
“We are strengthening our investments in R&D and taking steps to become a + pure player + biopharmaceutical, while further optimizing our cost structure,” said Paul Hudson, CEO of Sanofi.
The objective for Sanofi, which has stopped research in the very competitive diabetes and cardiovascular sector to move more and more towards specialty products, is to accelerate innovation and focus on rare diseases, immunoinflammation, hematology, vaccines and certain areas of oncology.
To innovate, Sanofi has increased its R&D spending by more than a billion per year since 2019 and the arrival of the British Paul Hudson at the helm. The biopharmaceutical segments include specialty medicine, general medicine and the vaccines business while the Consumer Health business covers food supplements and various products sold without a prescription. There we find Mucosolvan for coughs, Allegra for rhinitis, the Novanuit brand for sleep but also the very popular paracetamol Doliprane to relieve pain.
A declining turnover
In the third quarter, this entity, present in 150 countries with more than 11,000 employees, posted an increase of 4.6%, supported by products related to digestion and allergies, representing 1.245 billion euros, an increase of 10% of its turnover. The group’s quarterly turnover fell by 4.1% to 11.964 billion euros but at constant exchange rates sales were up 3.2%. Profitability did not decline with net profit up 21.6% to 2.525 billion euros.
On the biopharmaceutical side, sales increased by 3.1% (to 10,719 million euros), supported by the strong performance of the blockbuster Dupixent (immunology, specialty medicine), whose marketing scope continues to expand. expand while sales of general medicine and vaccines recorded a decline of 6.6% and 0.6% respectively.