Sanofi has launched a $77 million Global R&D Operations Hub in Chengdu, which will focus on digitalization and big data analysis for clinical trials. The China R&D centre will be the third pillar of Sanofi Global Clinical Sciences and Operations, joining facilities in France and the United States.

The Hub will support clinical R&D of Sanofi's innovative drugs, managing global multi-centre clinical trials data and files. The new hub plans to recruit 300 pharma R&D staff by 2020.

Sanofi already has an R&D centre in Shanghai focusing on finding drug targets and conducting trials in common diseases such as liver diseases, diabetes, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases, in the China and Asia-Pacific region.

Diabetes drugs have long been a lynchpin of Sanofi’s business, and its major rival in this market, Novo Nordisk has also invested in R&D in China.