Sanofi announces new global business unit structure

Sanofi has announced a major overhaul of its corporate structure, with its operations to be divided into five new global business units.

The general medicines and emerging markets unit will be led by Peter Guenter and will consist of Sanofi's established products, generics, consumer and emerging market portfolios.

Sanofi Genzyme will be the name of the specialty care unit, which will be led by David Meeker and encompass its rare disease, multiple sclerosis, oncology and immunology assets.

Meanwhile, a separate division will be established to handle the company's diabetes and cardiovascular activities, with the vaccines business Sanofi Pasteur and the animal health unit Merial to continue in their current forms.

This new structure will be implemented beginning in January 2016 and will help to drive the organisation's future growth strategy.

Olivier Brandicourt, chief executive officer at Sanofi, said: "This is a necessary step for ensuring that Sanofi's new medicines and vaccines continue to build on our heritage of providing innovative healthcare therapies."

Earlier this month, the company announced a new alliance with the Medicines for Malaria Venture to jointly develop a new single fixed-dose combination therapy for malaria.