Sanofi believes it’s still not too late to become a top player in cancer drug market
A little more than two years ago, Sanofi R&D chief Elias Zerhouni signaled the pharma giant’s sore disappointment in its cancer pipeline by axing group leader Tal Zaks and 100 investigators who failed to deliver the kind of exciting new oncology programs the pharma giant had promised to investors.
At the time, Sanofi said it was reorganizing to cut back expenses and absorbing the rest of the cancer R&D group into the global research structure. Then it turned to Regeneron to go to work on a blockbuster PD-1 partnership, which now is moving directly into pivotal studies. And Sanofi, which has struggled to find a major acquisition deal it can complete, has been eagerly signaling its intention to become a player in immuno-oncology, certain that the big surprises of the past year — like Bristol-Myers’ big setback on first-line lung cancer — indicate that there’s still plenty of trophies to hunt in the game of blockbusters played by the leaders in biopharma.
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