![\"Sanofi](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779948672_386_c45c40f5ed741dd9c0f5c2f75b8fc137.jpeg\")
Sanofi Winthrop Industrie <\/p>\n Sanofi Winthrop Industrie <\/p>\n
Sanofi appoints\u00a0Paulo Fontoura\u00a0as\u00a0Global\u00a0Head of\u00a0R&D<\/p>\n
Paris,\u00a0June 22,\u00a02026.\u00a0Sanofi today announced the appointment of\u00a0Paulo Fontoura,\u00a0MD, PhD, FAAN,\u00a0as\u00a0Executive Vice President, Global\u00a0Head of Research & Development\u00a0Pharma, effective\u00a0September 1, 2026.\u00a0He will be a member of Sanofi’s Executive Committee, based in Paris,\u00a0and\u00a0will\u00a0report to Chief Executive Officer Bel\u00e9n\u00a0Garijo.\u00a0As\u00a0head of R&D\u00a0Pharma,\u00a0Paulo will lead Sanofi’s end-to-end innovation engine, spanning research, translational medicine, clinical\u00a0development,\u00a0and regulatory\u00a0affairs, with responsibility for advancing a differentiated pipeline and accelerating the delivery of transformative medicines to patients.\u00a0Paulo succeeds Dr. Houman Ashrafian, who has decided to pursue an opportunity outside the company.<\/p>\n
With\u00a0more than 25 years of experience spanning academic medicine, translational science, clinical development,\u00a0and pharmaceutical innovation,\u00a0Paulo joins Sanofi at an important\u00a0moment as the company continues to advance its\u00a0R&D\u00a0transformation and progress a pipeline\u00a0of\u00a0new\u00a0medicines across multiple therapeutic areas.<\/p>\n
A board-certified neurologist and physician-scientist,\u00a0Paulo\u00a0has played a leading role in the development of significant medicines across neuroscience, immunology, rare diseases, ophthalmology,\u00a0and infectious diseases.\u00a0Most recently,\u00a0he\u00a0served as Chief Medical Officer of Xaira Therapeutics, an AI-native biotechnology company focused on transforming drug discovery and development through generative artificial intelligence. Prior to Xaira, he spent more\u00a0than 15 years\u00a0at Roche, where he held a series of senior leadership positions culminating as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Clinical Development for Neuroscience, Immunology, Ophthalmology, Infectious and Rare Diseases.\u00a0During his tenure at Roche, he oversaw a global organization of\u00a0physicians and clinical scientists and was accountable for\u00a0managing\u00a0a broad\u00a0late-stage portfolio\u00a0across multiple therapeutic areas.\u00a0Over the years, his teams contributed to the\u00a0development of over 60\u00a0new molecular entities, across several therapeutic modalities, leading to over 20 FDA\u00a0and\u00a0EMA first approvals and line extensions, including multiple breakthrough therapies\u00a0across neuroscience, rare diseases,\u00a0immunology\u00a0and ophthalmology.<\/p>\n
“I want to thank Dr. Houman Ashrafian for his\u00a0contribution\u00a0to our company over the\u00a0last\u00a0three\u00a0years and I wish him all the best in his next chapter. I am delighted to welcome Paulo to the Executive Team. Paulo is a\u00a0highly\u00a0respected\u00a0R&D leader with\u00a0a strong\u00a0track record\u00a0across research,\u00a0development,\u00a0and innovation.\u00a0His scientific\u00a0expertise, development experience,\u00a0and leadership of large-scale innovation organizations will be\u00a0invaluable\u00a0as we continue to\u00a0advance our pipeline and\u00a0shape the future of R&D at Sanofi,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Bel\u00e9n Garijo, Chief Executive Officer of\u00a0Sanofi.<\/p>\n
“I am thrilled to join Sanofi at such an exciting moment,”\u00a0said Paulo Fontoura.\u00a0“In recent years, Sanofi has\u00a0established\u00a0a leadership\u00a0position\u00a0in\u00a0immunology and built\u00a0strong positions\u00a0in several other areas of significant unmet medical need,\u00a0while\u00a0demonstrating a clear commitment to scientific innovation and AI-powered transformation. I am deeply\u00a0honored\u00a0to join the company at this important moment\u00a0and help Sanofi to expand and transform its pipeline and grow its leadership role in\u00a0biopharma, and I look forward to working with our talented teams to advance breakthrough medicines for patients around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paulo\u00a0holds an MD and PhD\u00a0from the New University of Lisbon and completed postdoctoral training in neuroimmunology at Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
About\u00a0Sanofi\u00a0
Sanofi is an R&D driven, AI-powered biopharma company committed to improving people\u2019s lives and\u00a0delivering\u00a0compelling growth. We apply our deep understanding of the immune system to invent medicines and vaccines that treat and protect millions of people around the world, with an innovative pipeline that could\u00a0benefit\u00a0millions more. Our team is guided by one purpose: we chase the miracles of science to improve people\u2019s lives; this inspires us to drive progress and deliver positive impact for our people and the communities we serve, by addressing the most urgent healthcare, environmental, and societal challenges of our time.\u00a0Sanofi is listed on\u00a0EURONEXT: SAN and NASDAQ: SNY<\/p>\n
Media Relations Investor Relations Sanofi Forward-Looking Statements Attachment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sanofi Winthrop Industrie Sanofi appoints\u00a0Paulo Fontoura\u00a0as\u00a0Global\u00a0Head of\u00a0R&D Paris,\u00a0June 22,\u00a02026.\u00a0Sanofi today announced the appointment of\u00a0Paulo Fontoura,\u00a0MD, PhD, FAAN,\u00a0as\u00a0Executive Vice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12983],"tags":[601,20489,20397,15020,15022,27092,27091,27090,15414,13012,15825],"class_list":["post-40192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sanofi","tag-chief-executive-officer","tag-chief-medical-officer","tag-clinical-development","tag-executive-committee","tag-executive-vice-president","tag-fontoura","tag-global-head-of-research-development-pharma","tag-houman-ashrafian","tag-rare-diseases","tag-sanofi","tag-therapeutic-areas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Sandrine Guendoul\u00a0| +33 6 25 09 14 25 |\u00a0sandrine.guendoul@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0
Evan\u00a0Berland\u00a0| +1 215 432 0234 |\u00a0evan.berland@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0
L\u00e9o Le Bourhis\u00a0| +33 6 75 06 43 81 |\u00a0leo.lebourhis@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0
L\u00e9a Ubaldi | +33 6 30 19 66 46 | lea.ubaldi@sanofi.com<\/a>
Laura Romby| +33 6 74 16 74 29 |\u00a0laura.romby@sanofi.com<\/a>
Ekaterina Pesheva\u00a0| +1 410\u00a0926\u00a06780 |\u00a0ekaterina.pescheva@sanofi.com<\/a>
Victor Rouault\u00a0| +1 617 356 4751 |\u00a0victor.rouault@sanofi.com<\/a>
Timothy Gilbert\u00a0| +1 516 521 2929 |\u00a0timothy.gilbert@sanofi.com<\/a><\/p>\n
Thomas Kudsk Larsen\u00a0|+ 44 7545 513 693 |\u00a0thomas.larsen@sanofi.com<\/a>
Aliz\u00e9 Kaisserian\u00a0| + 33 6 47 04 12 11 |\u00a0alize.kaisserian@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0
Keita Browne\u00a0| + 1 781 249 1766 |\u00a0keita.browne@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0
Nathalie Pham\u00a0| + 33 7 85 93 30 17 |\u00a0nathalie.pham@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0
Nina Goworek\u00a0| +1 908 569 7086\u00a0|\u00a0nina.goworek@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0
Thibaud Ch\u00e2telet\u00a0| + 33 6 80 80 89 90 |\u00a0thibaud.chatelet@sanofi.com<\/a>\u00a0
Yun Li | +33 6 84 00 90 72 | yun.li3@sanofi.com<\/a><\/p>\n
This press release\u00a0contains\u00a0forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and\u00a0estimates\u00a0and their underlying assumptions, statements\u00a0regarding\u00a0plans,\u00a0objectives, intentions, and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements\u00a0regarding\u00a0future\u00a0events and economic\u00a0performance. Words such as \u201cexpect,\u201d \u201canticipate,\u201d \u201cbelieve,\u201d \u201cintend,\u201d \u201cestimate,\u201d \u201cplan,\u201d \u201ccan,\u201d \u201ccontemplate,\u201d \u201ccould,\u201d \u201cis designed to,\u201d \u201cmay,\u201d \u201cmight,\u201d \u201cpotential,\u201d \u201cobjective,\u201d “attempt,” \u201ctarget,\u201d \u201cproject,\u201d “strategy,” “strive,” “desire,” \u201cpredict,\u201d \u201cforecast,\u201d \u201cambition,\u201d \u201cguideline,\u201d “seek,” \u201cshould,\u201d \u201cwill,\u201d “goal,” or the negative of these, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although Sanofi\u2019s management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the U.S Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labelling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates; the fact that product candidates if approved may not be commercially successful; unexpected regulatory actions or delays, or government regulation generally; authorities\u2019 decisions regarding whether and when to approve a product candidate;\u00a0political pressure in the United States to mandate lower drug prices including \u201cmost\u00a0favored\u00a0nation\u201d pricing for State Medicaid programs; the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives; Sanofi\u2019s ability to benefit from external growth opportunities, to complete related transactions and\/or obtain regulatory clearances, including future clinical data and analysis of existing clinical data relating to the product, including post marketing, unexpected safety, quality or manufacturing issues, competition in general; risks associated with intellectual property and any related pending or future litigation and the ultimate outcome of such litigation; trends in exchange rates and prevailing interest rates, volatile economic and market conditions, cost containment initiatives and subsequent changes thereto, and the impact that global crises may have on us, our customers, suppliers, vendors, and other business partners, and the financial condition of any one of them, as well as on our employees and on the global economy as a whole.\u00a0 The risks and uncertainties also include the uncertainties discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the French Markets Authority (AMF) made by Sanofi, including those listed under \u201cRisk Factors\u201d and \u201cCautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements\u201d in Sanofi\u2019s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31,\u00a02025\u00a0or contained in our periodic reports on Form 6-K. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.\u00a0In light of\u00a0these risks,\u00a0uncertainties\u00a0and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements\u00a0contained\u00a0herein.<\/p>\n