BIONEWS
On her first call, Sanofi CEO Belén Garijo cut three late stage immunology drugs — amlitelimab (atopic dermatitis), balinatunfib (psoriasis), and itepekimab (COPD) — narrowing the pipeline that must replace Sanofi's blockbuster Dupixent, the eczema
On her first earnings call as Sanofi CEO, Belén Garijo killed three drugs that defined her predecessor's clinical pipeline, and made clear more cuts are coming.
Garijo, who took over Sanofi in late April after Paul Hudson was pushed out, used the July 30 second-quarter call to drop amlitelimab, balinatunfib, and itepekimab from the French pharma's late-stage roster. Each failure was a different shape of miss. Amlitelimab, the anti-OX40L antibody once touted as a $5 billion peak-sales opportunity, flunked a phase 2 asthma study earlier and has now also been cut in atopic dermatitis, the eczema-like skin disease. Balinatunfib, an oral TNF inhibitor for psoriasis, missed the goal of a midstage trial. Itepekimab, the IL-33 antibody partnered with Regeneron, failed one of a pair of phase 3 studies in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the umbrella term for conditions like emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Garijo called the clearout the opening move of a "portfolio strategic assessment" that is, in her words, "still ongoing." Her stated investment filter, delivered verbatim on the call: "We will continue to invest where science is strongest, where unmet medical need is greatest, and where we can create sustainable long-term value." That slogan is the filter the three kills failed, and the bar the surviving late-stage assets will now be measured against.
Dupixent, the immunology blockbuster that treats eczema, asthma, and other inflammatory conditions, was Sanofi's largest single product by sales. It loses patent protection around 2031, and no single surviving late-stage asset is positioned to replace that revenue on its own. The three kills narrow the candidate pool the company has left to plug a roughly five-year hole.
The next decision sits with Paulo Fontoura, named Sanofi's new head of R&D in July and set to start in September. Garijo used the call to signal she wants to "simplify the way we make decisions," a line aimed at both the prior R&D process and the incoming R&D mandate. The board's February appointment language for Garijo read: "bring an increased rigor to the implementation of Sanofi's strategy" and "strengthen the productivity, governance and innovation capacity of R&D."
Hudson's ouster followed a string of late-stage clinical setbacks, and the three drugs cut on Garijo's first call were the highest-profile assets of that run. None of the three was a surprise failure inside Sanofi, but the $5 billion amlitelimab number is what gave the cuts their news weight. The 2025 year-end pipeline review had been the public inventory of the assets now being rationalized. The cheapest read of Garijo's first quarter is that she is doing the obvious: culling her predecessor's flops. The harder read is whether the surviving late-stage roster, filtered through her stated principle, can produce a single asset large enough to matter when Dupixent revenue goes generic.
Q3 results are due in October, by which point Fontoura will have been on the R&D job for roughly a month. The filter is in writing. The kills are logged. The patent clock keeps running.