Sanofi will host an analyst meeting in Paris today to discuss the company’s Research and Development strategy, development pipeline and milestones for 2018. The company will highlight the progress it has made against “Sustaining Innovation”, a key pillar of its 2020 strategic roadmap, and advancing a differentiated portfolio addressing unmet needs.

The company’s pipeline spans 71 R&D projects, which includes 37 new molecular entities and novel vaccines. At least 10 pivotal phase 3 studies are expected to start over the next 12 months and will evaluate new treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and eosinophilic esophagitis; autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a rare kidney disease (venglustat); type 2 diabetes (efpeglenatide, a once-weekly GLP-1 agonist); obesity (a GLP-1/GCG dual agonist); primary progressive multiple sclerosis (alemtuzumab), and first line NSCLC.

Regulatory filings expected in the next 12 months include two investigational cancer drugs (cemiplimab and isatuximab) which is a novel therapy for type 1 diabetes (sotagliflozin) and a potential treatment for uncontrolled, persistent asthma (dupilumab).

Olivier Brandicourt, Chief Executive Officer at Sanofi said, “We have seen significant advancement on our ambition to sustain innovation in R&D, with the development of leading technology platforms and proof of concept demonstrated in multiple high-potential projects in late stage trials. We are confident this portfolio will be the foundation for Sanofi’s future long-term growth.”

As a key pillar of the 2020 Roadmap, the new Sanofi R&D model is based on three key strategic shifts from small molecules to biologics; from mono-targeting to multi-targeting compounds; and from licensing to proprietary assets.

The company has continuously adapted its R&D model in recent years to deliver greater efficiency and excellence in development, resulting in a major uplift in productivity.

Since 2016, consistent with the three key strategic shifts outlined above, Sanofi has placed increasing emphasis on developing proprietary technology platforms, including multi-specific antibodies (bi- & tri-specific), siRNA, trigonal peptides, dual and triple agonists, and PRR-Antibody conjugates. It has also leveraged external expertise in targeted platforms such as mRNA mixtures and Nanobodies®.

Elias Zerhouni, Global Head of R&D at Sanofi said, “We aim to advance multi-targeting therapeutic approaches for core disease pathways that have the potential to attack more than one disease at a time or bring improved risk benefit in the treatment of a single disease. 2018 will be an important year as we expect multiple milestones for Sanofi’s late-stage pipeline, made possible through the prioritization principles we have consistently applied to our early-stage research programs.”