Sanofi’s inflammation drug Dupixent® is driving a substantial percentage of the firm’s sales in 2020, reaching USD 1.92 billion in the first half of the year, with a reported growth of 94 percent. Sanofi Genzyme Executive VP Bill Sibold recently spoke exclusively to PharmaBoardroom about the drug’s success.
Dupixent® has been a once-in-a-career type of product.
Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson is moving the firm away from its weaker sales areas and doubling down on drugs like Dupixent® that show a strong chance of success. The organisation has undergone a large-scale restructuring in order to refocus its priorities and has been divided into Specialty Care, Vaccines and General Medicines business units.
As sales for general medicines such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease have seen an overall decrease in recent months, its specialty care unit, which includes Dupixent®, along with oncology, rare diseases and blood disorders, has stood out with stellar revenue growth despite the global Covid-19 pandemic. Hudson believes Dupixent® is capable of bringing in more than USD 10 billion annually in peak sales. The product was approved by the US FDA for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis in 2017 and for asthma in late 2018. Its success is attributed to its selective mechanism of action which targets the type 2 inflammation pathway.
Dupixent®, co-developed with Regeneron, has already been launched in 44 countries and has plans for 54 more for this year. The drug was recently approved and launched in China, which is predicted to be a highly lucrative market with at least 150,000 patients.
Sanofi Genzyme executive vice president Bill Sibold recently spoke exclusively with PharmaBoardroom about the reasons behind Dupixent®’s success. Sibold shared that despite the numerous product launches in his 11-year tenure with the company, this particular product is transformational.
“Dupixent® has been a once-in-a-career type of product. Its unique mechanism of action targeting the type 2 inflammation pathway is fundamental to the underlying biology of many inflammatory diseases. We started with two indications: atopic dermatitis (AD) and asthma, which are areas with high unmet medical needs; Dupixent® was the first biologic approved for the treatment of AD. Asthma and AD are the leading indications but we’re also looking at adjacent indications in dermatology and respiratory diseases.”
Sibold continued, “In addition, Dupixent® has an extremely strong safety profile, again due to the fundamentals of the biology behind the drug. In the US, we recently received approval for Dupixent® for the treatment of children between the ages of 6 and 11 years old with AD. Looking at the global market, another exciting milestone is Dupixent®’s approval in China, which could potentially be a huge market for us.”
