Sanofi SA (SASY.PA): New R&D head, not unexpected but more uncertainty comes with change

Research evidence excerpt

Sanofi SA (SASY.PA): New R&D head, not unexpected but more uncertainty comes with change

Flash |

22 Jun 2026 03:40:27 ET │ 10 pages

Sanofi SA (SASY.PA)

New R&D head, not unexpected but more uncertainty comes with

change

CITI’S TAKE Neutral

Sanofi announced the appointment of Paulo Fontoura, MD/PhD/FAAN as Price (19 Jun 26 17:30) €74.14

Head of R&D from Sep-1, replacing Houman Ashrafian. The change is not Target price €82.00

unexpected given a new CEO (Belen Garijo, joined April 29th) and

Expected share price return 10.6% following a string of R&D setbacks in 2025/2026 (albeit with

disappointing trials initiations mostly pre-dating outgoing head of R&D). Expected dividend yield 5.8%

Dr. Fontoura comes from Xaira Therapeutics (AI biotech company) but is Expected total return 16.4%

better known to investors for his 15 years at Roche including Global Market Cap €90,013M

Development Head of Neuroscience, Immunology, Opthalmology, US$103,236M

Infectious and Rare Disease, which we see as highly-relevant to the role at

Sanofi, given therapeutic area overlap. However, we see R&D leadership at

Sanofi, along with M&A/BD, as critical to Sanofi’s pipeline turnaround and

the change adding to uncertainty in the organisation following recent CEO Graham ParryAC

change hence we think investors are likely to reserve judgement until there +44-20-7508-3661

is clear evidence of progress on rejuvenating the pipeline. Neutral. graham.parry@citi.com

Leolie Telford-Cooke Ph.D.

Dr Fontoura has 25 years experience across academic medicine, translational Amy Y Mao

science and clinical development. Fontoura previously held the role of Chief Medical

Officer at Xaira Therapeutics, an AI biotechnology company which uses generative AI Jelena Milovic

for drug discovery and development.