Sanofi’s jump in earnings comes with an increased emphasis on R&D and vaccines, plus an eye cast toward M&A to shore up its pipeline.
Sanofi’s super autoimmune blockbuster Dupixent helped drive an 11.3% sales increase in 2024, a result touted by executives as a win but one analyst called a slight miss.
In full-year earnings results released Thursday morning, the French biopharma giant’s total sales hit about €41 billion ($42.7 billion) for 2024.
That performance was driven by sales of autoimmune-fighting antibody Dupixent, with €13 billion in sales ($13.62 billion). BMO Capital Markets analysts noted that Dupixent’s performance actually indicated a slight miss from analysts consensus of $13.75 billion (€13.18 billion).
Sanofi executives also pointed to the company’s new RSV vaccine for newborns, Beyfortus, approved by the FDA in mid-2023. Last year, the vaccine brought in €1.7 billion ($1.77 billion) in 2024.
“Beyfortus achieved blockbuster status in its first full year of sales,” CEO Paul Hudson said on the call.
Thomas Triomphe, head of vaccines at Sanofi, added, “We’re very happy about the impact we have seen [from Beyfortus] on hospitalization in the newborn population. We’ve seen many countries showing 80 or 90% reduction on hospitalization.”
Hudson also boasted about the company’s continuing work on the vaccine pipeline, noting a bevy of vaccine trials, including vaccines for pneumococcus, meningococcus and an RSV vaccine for adults aged 18 to 49 and 60 to 75. The adult RSV vaccine would put Sanofi into direct competition with Pfizer, Moderna and GSK, who have focused their RSV vaccine efforts on adults.
Triomphe also highlighted trials on RSV aimed at children, with the goal of keeping kids immunized with Sanofi’s products as they grow. “It really complements very well what we’re doing on Beyfortus. First season you get your newborn protected with Beyfortus. Second season, you want to make sure that you’re able to provide what we call ‘complete protection.’”
The earnings call comes on the heels of Sanofi’s recently announced emphasis on research and development in medicines and vaccines. This strategy involved separating from essentially any other potential revenue streams for the time being, especially its consumer healthcare wing. Sanofi announced plans to sell a controlling share of its healthcare unit Opella in October, with the proceeds going towards possible acquisitions in the coming year.
CFO François Roger said in a media call early Thursday morning that it wants to use its strong balance sheet to shore up its pipeline through M&A. “We are looking at opportunities in M&A, but without any pressure,” Roger said during the earnings readout call. “We don’t feel any pressure to go crazy on M&A.”
Increase in business expenses was driven by a boost inspending on R&D, according to Roger. Over the full year 2024, Sanofi bumped its total R&D spend 14.6% to a total of €7.4 billion ($7.72 billion). That was on top of a €900 million ($938.60 million) R&D increase in 2023 as well.
As for deals, Sanofi has stayed busy even in the absence of acquisitions. In September the French biopharma signed a $110 million (€105.48 million) licensing deal with radiopharma-focused Orano Med and RadioMedix. A month later, the company paid $326 million (€312.59 million) for a 16% stake in the Orano Med to develop radiotherapies for rare cancers.
Asked by analysts on Thursday what drug in the pipeline they were most excited about, Hudson answered: “The old ‘what child is your favorite?’ question. My answer is the one who called me most recently.”
