2023-11-07 13:13:20
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation in March targeting the large French pharmaceutical group Sanofi for price manipulation, a judicial source reported on Tuesday, November 7, confirming information from The letter.
This preliminary investigation is open for “dissemination of false or misleading information and price manipulation, entrusted to the financial brigade” and door “on the financial communication of the Sanofi group”confirmed this source. The letter specifies that this concerns one of the laboratory’s star drugs, Dupixent. According to the media, Sanofi would have used a “misleading financial communication to convince the financial markets of the very good prospects expected for the launch of this drug”.
When asked, the judicial source did not specify whether searches or police custody had taken place to date as part of this investigation. Questioned by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the group claimed not to be ” aware “ of an investigation.
Used in particular to treat asthma and eczema, Dupixent – by its scientific name dupilumab – is a blockbuster, that is to say a drug which brings in more than a billion euros per year for the laboratory.
More than 10 billion euros in annual sales
In addition to atopic dermatitis and asthma, Dupixent is also approved in various countries for the treatment of nasal polyposis (sinus pathology), or even eosinophilic esophagitis (chronic esophageal disease). Since his arrival as CEO of the group in 2019, Briton Paul Hudson has focused on the potential of Dupixent, with the objective of expanding sales and obtaining new therapeutic authorizations.
The results are dazzling: sales, which were around 380 million euros in the third quarter of 2019, climbed to 2 billion euros at the end of 2019. And the drug is marketed in 34 countries, compared to 18 countries at the arrival of Mr. Hudson.
Between 2020 and 2021, they increase from 3.5 billion to 5 billion euros. In the third trimester, Dupixent “approaching 11 billion euros in annual sales”, reported Mr. Hudson at the end of October during the presentation of quarterly results. Investors, however, are wondering about the group’s dependence on this flagship drug, the patent for which will fall in 2031.
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