Dialogue with Sanofi Acting Chief Executive Officer Thomas Caillier: Co-building a Prosperous Ecosystem for Chinese Pharmaceutical Innovation

How can AI and domestic collaboration accelerate the implementation of Sanofi’s innovative drugs?

In recent years, all of Sanofi’s strategies in the Chinese market have served a long-term goal: achieving higher quality, more resilient, and more sustainable growth in China.

The recently concluded National “Two Sessions” in China highlighted the acceleration of Healthy China construction as a key topic. From the “promotion” ten years ago, to “comprehensive promotion” five years ago, and now to “accelerating construction,” the Healthy China initiative has become a crucial decision closely aligned with the country’s overall strategic plan.

Biopharmaceuticals are at the core and material foundation of Healthy China. In the government work report at the start of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, biopharmaceuticals were included for the first time as a new pillar industry, elevating its strategic status from “cultivating emerging industries” to “economic pillar.”

Policies encouraging innovation, such as medical insurance payment reforms and new drug review and approval processes, coupled with a large patient population, form the core logic for multinational pharmaceutical companies to establish a long-term presence in China, investing in local manufacturing and innovation. From continuously introducing innovative products and treatment options to China, to establishing R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, and other cities, and investing in new or expanded manufacturing bases, China is no longer just the second-largest market for multinationals but also a source of innovation and a stable manufacturing hub. Collaborations with domestic companies further deepen the integration of multinational pharma with China’s biopharmaceutical industry.

Take Sanofi as an example. On October 17, 2025, Sanofi officially launched its insulin raw material drug project in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. The total investment is 1 billion euros, with full operation expected by 2032. This investment is also the largest in the pharmaceutical industry in Beijing since the 14th Five-Year Plan.

This 1 billion euro investment marks the first time a multinational pharmaceutical company has established a biopharmaceutical raw material drug production base in China. Compared to previous assembly and packaging lines, raw material drug production involves higher technological content.

What are the considerations behind this investment? How do multinational companies contribute to accelerating Healthy China, and what business opportunities can they discover? How can they deeply integrate with China’s local innovation ecosystem? Recently, Xia Liwei, Acting CEO, Executive Vice President, and Head of the Global Prescription Business at Sanofi, shared his insights.

“Investing in China is essentially investing in the future of the pharmaceutical industry.”

At the end of January, Sanofi released its 2025 financial report, with total revenue growing 9.9% (at fixed exchange rates), and China revenue reaching approximately $3 billion, achieving steady growth.

Rooted in China for over 40 years, China has long been Sanofi’s second-largest global market. Data from the drug regulatory system shows that from 2020 to the end of 2025, Sanofi approved 34 innovative drugs, vaccines, and new indications in China, exceeding its goal of introducing 25 innovative products in China between 2020 and 2025.

At the start of this year, on February 27, Sanofi announced that Dupilumab injection received approval for two new indications in China: maintenance treatment for children aged 6 and above with asthma, and treatment for adult bullous pemphigoid. Earlier, cardiovascular drugs like Aflucetide tablets and Pulesiran sodium injections were approved in December 2025 and January 2026, respectively, with the former already being prescribed in more than ten provinces and cities nationwide.

In the past three months alone, new drugs or indications have been approved each month, raising industry and investor expectations for its revenue.

According to Xia Liwei, all strategic initiatives by Sanofi in China in recent years—whether accelerating the introduction of innovative drugs and new indications, granting China autonomous BD decision-making rights, or investing 1 billion euros in insulin raw material production—serve a common long-term goal: achieving higher quality, more resilient, and sustainable growth in China.

For pharmaceutical companies, accelerating innovation and introduction directly drive future growth; investing in local manufacturing ensures supply chain stability and security while better responding to market changes, ensuring access to core products; independent BD licensing opens new possibilities for future growth.

“We are not simply pursuing short-term revenue jumps but are more focused on the structural optimization and long-term value these initiatives bring,” Xia Liwei said. He expects these measures will usher in a new, higher-quality growth cycle for Sanofi in China. “This cycle will not be characterized by a ‘big leap’ in a single year but by a more stable and sustainable growth curve over the coming years.”

In Xia Liwei’s view, the Chinese market is highly unique and multi-dimensional, with strategic significance beyond mere scale. First, the speed of market renewal and innovation iteration in China is very fast. The entire chain—from drug review and approval, insurance access, to commercialization—demonstrates remarkable efficiency, requiring pharma companies to respond with agility.

Second, China’s large population base, combined with a disease spectrum different from the West, creates highly unique demand structures in chronic disease management, immunology, and oncology. Based on this, Sanofi’s headquarters empowers Chinese teams to actively expand and promote local collaborations and development opportunities, accelerating tailored solutions for Chinese patients.

Third, the rise of local forces, breakthroughs in real-world data application, and advanced digital healthcare infrastructure inject new vitality into industry development.

Moreover, the Healthy China strategy enhances the global importance of China’s market and innovation in the global health industry landscape.

“Healthy China is a visionary national strategy that prioritizes people’s health at its core. We highly appreciate the Chinese government’s commitment and actions to improve healthcare efficiency, expand accessibility, and promote a sustainable long-term system,” Xia Liwei noted. He pointed out the frequent use of the phrase “accelerating progress” in China’s description of the strategy, indicating a clear effort to shift from scale growth to structural upgrading—a historic and unprecedented opportunity.

Xia Liwei emphasized that Sanofi’s global strategy aligns closely with the Healthy China goals. He believes the strategy is deeply reshaping the industry environment, with core focus on “value-based healthcare” in areas such as insurance access and primary healthcare capacity. This also presents more business opportunities.

Innovations that truly address unmet clinical needs and improve patient outcomes have long-term vitality. “This drives us to accelerate the landing of innovation pipelines in core areas like immunology, cardiology, metabolism, oncology, respiratory, and rare diseases with ‘China speed,’” Xia Liwei said. Chinese pharmaceutical innovation has demonstrated global competitiveness across multiple fields, with rapidly improving local biotech innovation capabilities opening new collaboration models for multinationals. “Sanofi’s strategy is to leverage our global experience, clinical development, and registration capabilities as a multinational, combined with the innovative vitality of local biopharmaceutical companies, to create a ‘1+1>2’ effect.”

Continued investment by multinationals in China is not only driven by market potential but also because China has become a vital hub for gaining innovation insights and strengthening systemic capabilities. “Sanofi’s investment in China is fundamentally an investment in the future of the pharmaceutical industry,” Xia Liwei said.

90% of global projects are developed simultaneously

In April 2025, Sanofi and KKR announced the joint establishment of the Sanofi-KKR Pharmaceutical Innovation Fund. The fund focuses on investing in innovative drugs in China that have entered clinical stages and related industry opportunities.

Eight months later, in December 2025, the fund completed its first investment, leading the Series A funding of local innovative drug company Yanshengchao, mainly to advance Yanshengchao’s core pipeline targeting the CXCR3 pathway, as well as preclinical development and team building; providing necessary funding for subsequent preclinical research and pipeline expansion, and laying a solid foundation for clinical development planning and global collaboration.

Founded in 2022, Yanshengchao relies on research成果 from Professor Qi Hai’s team at Tsinghua University School of Medicine, focusing on developing drugs targeting acquired immune dysregulation.

The Sanofi-KKR Pharmaceutical Innovation Fund has become a new lever for Sanofi to deeply integrate into China’s innovation ecosystem. The fund’s focus areas include cardiovascular, metabolic diseases, transplantation, autoimmune diseases, and vaccines, especially those with potential for first-in-class or best-in-class innovation.

Years ago, Sanofi had already placed high importance on and actively participated in China’s local R&D innovation process, establishing four major R&D bases in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Suzhou, expanding its research footprint in China. According to Xia Liwei, over 90% of Sanofi’s global synchronized development projects in China involve the local team. “By 2025, we expect 26 clinical trial applications approved in China, further increasing our innovation efforts in immunology, neurology, oncology, transplantation, diabetes, and cardiovascular areas, including three innovative vaccines—the 21-valent pneumonia vaccine, quadrivalent meningitis vaccine, and children’s hexavalent vaccine.”

Since late 2022, Sanofi has actively expanded and promoted local collaborations in China. Unlike some multinationals relying solely on global pipelines, Sanofi integrates local experience with global advantages to maximize innovation efficiency.

“Independent BD licensing allows us to more keenly capture local innovation opportunities. Through collaborations with Chinese biotech companies, we continuously enrich our product pipeline,” Xia Liwei said.

This strategy has already borne fruit. Since late 2024, Sanofi has gained development and commercialization rights for Avycaz and Pulesiran sodium injections in Greater China through BD collaborations with Jixing Pharmaceuticals and Vianzen. Both drugs were approved within a year of BD transactions.

On March 4, 2026, Sanofi and China Biologic Products reached an exclusive licensing agreement for Rovalglitinib, a globally first-in-class, potent oral JAK/ROCK inhibitor. Under the agreement, China Biologic’s subsidiary, Chia Tai Tianqing, grants Sanofi exclusive rights to develop, produce, and commercialize Rovalglitinib worldwide.

This deal not only reflects a global valuation of China’s innovative strength but also represents a mature asset for Sanofi. Just four days before the announcement, on February 28, Rovalglitinib was approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for first-line treatment of adult patients with intermediate- or high-risk primary myelofibrosis, post-polycythemia vera or post-essential thrombocythemia myelofibrosis.

Additionally, clinical trials for cGVHD treatment with this drug have entered Phase III in China and Phase II in the US.

As global multinationals face patent expirations between 2025 and 2030 with growing anxiety, Sanofi continues to expand its local innovation “circle of friends” in China.

In February, Sanofi announced two investments. On February 12, it announced a $30 million strategic equity investment in Gero Biotech to advance the development of a sickle cell disease molecular degrader; on February 9, Quxin Biotech announced completion of a heavily oversubscribed Series B funding of $85 million, led by Sanofi Ventures and others, to support clinical development of its best-in-class STAT6 and IL-17 oral small molecule inhibitors, and to continue R&D in immune and inflammatory oral therapies.

“We are committed to helping Chinese innovative pharma companies bridge the key pathways from labs to global markets. Whether through early scientific collaboration, clinical development, or market access, we aim to provide comprehensive support and jointly foster China’s pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem,” Sanofi stated.