Sanofi-aventis board propose director reappointment

The board of directors at Sanofi-aventis has submitted a proposal for the reappointment of 13 members whose terms of office expire later this year.

Submitted at the General Shareholders’ meeting, the board discussed the reappointment of Jean-François Dehecq, Jean-Marc Bruel, Robert Castaigne, Thierry Desmarest,
Jean-Rene Fourtou, Igor Landau, Christian Mulliez, Lindsay Owen-Jones and Klaus Pohle.

Four directors are not seeking reappointment and four new directors have also been proposed to join the board: Claudie Haignere, Uwe Bicker, Patrick
de la Chevardiere and Gunter Thielen.

Ms Haignere is a certified rheumatologist who since 2005 has been an advisor to the director general of the European Space Agency.

Meanwhile, Mr Bicker is a physician and professor at the medical faculty at Heidelberg University.

Mr Chevardiere is currently deputy chief financial officer of Total and Mr Thielen is the chairman of the supervisory board at Bertelsmann.

The board has proposed to the General Shareholders’ meeting that the duration of the terms are staggered so that from 2010, one-third of the board will be renewed each year.

Earlier this week, Sanofi-aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that the European Committee for Medicinal Products has expressed a positive opinion for the approval of a 300mg loading dose of their Plavix tablet.