Sanofi – Company Overview, History, Products

Sanofi is a France-based pharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, production, and distribution of pharmaceutical products. The multinational pharmaceutical brand is headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in the year 1973, the company was initially started as a subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine which is a French oil company, however, that is too acquired by a company named Total in the year 2000, and the company specializes in the energy and petroleum sector.

Although the company has various units and segments in terms of pharmaceutical production and distribution, the company also engages in developing over-the-counter (OTC) drugs that are a type of pharmaceutical product that can be directly sold to consumers without even a prescription. The company operates in several franchises that include, specialty care, diabetes and cardiovascular, established prescription products and generics, and research, development, and production activities. It has a separate venture for the vaccine segment named Sanofi Pasteur. Let’s get to know more about the Sanofi company in this article. 

How Did Sanofi Start?

Beginning as a subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine in the year 1973. Elf Aquitaine had taken over on the Labaz Group, which was founded in the year 1947 and also it was a pharmaceutical company. The foundation of Sanofi in 1973 was the result of this acquisition.

Parallelly, in 1973, cosmetics company L’Or’eal bought the majority stake in Synthélabo which was a result of the merger of two French pharmaceutical laboratories, Laboratoires Dausse (founded in 1834) and Laboratoires Robert & Carrière in the year 1970. Later on, as a result of the acquisition of Laboratories Delalande and Laboratoires Delagrange Synthélabo took over the product metoclopramide which is a medicine used for the treatment of stomach and esophageal issues. And then, came the time when Sanofi and Synthélabo merged together to form Sanofi-Synthélabo. in the year 1999.

1999 was the peak time for both the companies in their respective sectors as at the point the time when both the companies decided to merge together, Sanofi was the second largest player in terms of Pharmaceuticals in France, and Synthélabo ranked third. The merger focused on the expansion of the business across various divisions including beauty, diagnostics, animal health and nutrition, and even custom chemicals.

Further, with a lot of hustle, poison pill strategy, and lot of negotiations over the bid of acquisition of Aventis, Sanofi-Synthélabo finally acquired Aventis in 2004 forming Sanofi-Aventis. However, in an annual general meeting of the company, it was decided that ‘Aventis’ would be dropped as a suffix of the company’s name, and the decision was finally implemented on 6 May 2011.

Overview of Sanofi

According to the standard sources, Sanofi is currently having its presence in over 100 countries with over 70 manufacturing sites and approximately 20 research and development sites. The company has approximately around 100, 000 employees across the world.

Currently, Sanofi is among the prominent members of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Also, its vaccine arm Sanofi Pasteur is a member of EuropaBio which is Europe’s largest as well as influential biotech industry group.