Sanofi global head of R&D leaving to pursue opportunities outside of company

Sanofi’s global head of R&D, John Reed, will be stepping down from his role to pursue opportunities elsewhere, the company announced Monday. 

Dietmar Berger, Sanofi’s chief medical officer and global head of development, will take on the R&D head role until the company finds a permanent replacement. Berger originally joined Sanofi in 2019 after serving in various roles at Genentech, Bayer and Amgen.

Reed originally joined Sanofi in 2018, taking over the head R&D role from Elias Zerhouni, who was retiring at the time. He previously worked at Roche, and before that, served as CEO of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

During Reed’s time at Sanofi, the company developed a monoclonal antibody for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), nirsevimab. Earlier in January, Sanofi announced that the Food and Drug Administration accepted a Biologics License Application for nirsevimab for infants under the age of 24 months.

Reed also oversaw the company’s acquisition of Principia Biopharma for $3.68 billion in 2020. Sanofi recently decided it would halt a Phase III trial of one of the drugs acquired in that buyout, a treatment for myasthenia gravis. That leaves the French drugmaker with a multiple sclerosis drug it also picked up from Principia, which is currently awaiting a data readout this year.

At the end of 2022, Sanofi also licensed Innate Pharma’s natural killer (NK) cell engager program for $26.6 million, part of its greater investment in NK cells for cancer immunotherapy.

“Under John’s leadership, our R&D organization has built a robust pipeline and sharpened its research focus, employing cutting-edge therapeutic platforms and creating a culture that responds to the urgent needs of patients,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in a statement.

The year ahead is one where Sanofi plans to launch two new drugs that “will address major needs in hemophilia and RSV.” The company added that in the next 15 months, it expects 27 readouts in multiple sclerosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and chronic bronchitis.

“As we continue to build an exciting specialty care and vaccines portfolio, we look forward to the growing momentum of our pipeline,” Hudson said. “This is what we were aiming for when we laid our strategy in 2019, and the 2022 results we recently published confirmed our choices.”