The company veteran will return to lead the pharma firm, taking over from Paul Hudson.
Sanofi has shaken up its senior leadership, jettisoning Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Paul Hudson after six years and replacing him with Merck’s Dr Belén Garijo.
Sanofi's Board of Directors met yesterday and decided not to renew Hudson’s Director mandate, making his last day leading the company 17 February.
Replacing him will be Dr Garijo, who is currently CEO for Germany’s Merck Group and will take the reins at Sanofi on 29 April. Until then Olivier Charmeil, Executive Vice President, General Medicines, will serve as Interim CEO during the transition period.
Dr Garijo has been CEO at Merck since 2021, when she became the first woman to lead a DAX40 company in Germany having initially became Chief Operating Officer of Biopharma for Merck KGaA in 2011.
Prior to that she spent 15 years at Sanofi, rising to Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations for Europe and Canada.
The Board is pleased to welcome Belén Garijo as Chief Executive Officer... She knows the Sanofi Group very well, where she has held important positions and achieved many successes for 15 years"
Frédéric Oudéa, Chairman of Sanofi’s Board of Directors, said: “The Board is pleased to welcome Belén Garijo as Chief Executive Officer. She is a well-recognised leader in our industry with an undisputable reputation.
“She knows the Sanofi Group very well, where she has held important positions and achieved many successes for 15 years.”
When she takes up her new role the company said Dr Garijo will increase Sanofi's focus on its strategy, with the specific intention of strengthening its productivity, governance and R&D innovation capacity.
The change in leadership at Sanofi follows another CEO transition by another major pharmaceutical company in recent months. Last September, GSK announced Luke Miels would replace Emma Walmsley who had been in the role for eight years.
