When a pharmaceutical giant says it wants "increased rigor" from its next CEO, that's corporate-speak for "the current plan isn't working fast enough." Sanofi (SNY) made that message crystal clear on Wednesday by declining to renew CEO Paul Hudson's director mandate after six years at the helm.
Hudson's last day will be February 17, 2026, marking the end of a tenure defined by one spectacular success and one nagging problem: He couldn't figure out how to replicate Dupixent's magic before the patent clock runs out.
New Leadership, Familiar Challenges
The board appointed Belén Garijo as the new chief executive, with her official start date set for April 29, 2026, following the company's annual general meeting. Shareholders will also vote on adding Garijo to the board of directors. During the transition, Olivier Charmeil, who currently leads the General Medicines division as Executive Vice President, will serve as interim CEO.
Garijo brings serious credentials. She joined Merck KGaA (MKGAF) (MKKGY) in 2011 and rose to become CEO in 2021, making history as the first woman to lead a DAX40 company in Germany. The board expects her to bring that increased rigor everyone keeps mentioning, particularly to strengthen R&D productivity, governance, and innovation capacity.
The Dupixent Problem Nobody Can Solve
Here's the uncomfortable truth driving this leadership change: Hudson was hired in 2019 with a clear mandate to revive Sanofi's drug pipeline and share price, particularly to replace aging blockbuster drugs. But he struggled to reduce the company's dependence on Dupixent, its star eczema treatment, drawing mounting pressure from investors.
The numbers tell the story. Dupixent sales surged 32.2% to 4.2 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone. That's phenomenal growth, except when you realize it makes the eventual patent cliff even more terrifying.
CFO François-Xavier Roger didn't sugarcoat the challenge when speaking with Reuters: "We believe that we will not be able to mitigate the impact of the (loss of exclusivity) of Dupixent as far as sales are concerned. It's too big to be mitigated."
That's the kind of honest admission that explains why boards start looking for new leadership.
Vaccine Weakness Adds to Pressure
Sanofi's vaccine segment didn't help matters in Q4. Overall vaccine sales declined 2.5% to 2 billion euros, driven by lower sales of Beyfortus and polio/pertussis/Hib vaccines, though influenza products performed better than expected.
Beyfortus brought in 686 million euros, down 14.9%, while influenza and COVID-19 vaccines climbed 31.5% to 575 million euros. The PPH vaccines fell 9.5% to 551 million euros, largely because fewer babies were born in multiple countries, including China.
The Dupixent Successor Question
Sanofi is developing amlitelimab as a potential successor to Dupixent. The company reported that clinical data supports amlitelimab's potential for treating patients 12 years and older with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. Whether that proves sufficient to ease investor concerns about the post-Dupixent future remains an open question.
SNY Price Action: Sanofi shares dropped 6.25% to $46.17 during premarket trading on Thursday.
