The new logo?

Oh yes, says Beate Bockelt.

You have already gone through so many logo changes, first at Hoechst AG, then after the division and renaming in Aventis, shortly afterwards the merger with Sanofi and now the new black lettering with two purple dots.

"It takes some getting used to, but it's up to date," says the chairwoman of the general works council at Sanofi-Aventis in Germany.

After all, it is better and simpler than the previous three-colored "Bird of Hope".

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Group CEO Paul Hudson presented the new group logo in Paris on Friday morning, with the comment that it should be understood as a battle cry to tackle the company's growth together.

“We are no longer a conglomerate of many, but one entity,” says Hudson.

He also wants to signal externally how much he has rebuilt the group.

The workforce in Frankfurt-Höchst, the largest single location in the group, felt the effects of this.

In the past year alone, the works council had to negotiate five different restructuring measures with management.

Jobs were cut, the active ingredient area was spun off into the new subsidiary Euroapi, which Hudson intends to list on the stock exchange this year.

And around 400 Sanofi employees are to switch to another subsidiary called Nattermann, which produces non-prescription medicines.

Sanofi recently had around 7,600 employees and trainees in Frankfurt.

Not just a drug manufacturer anymore

One of the reasons for the permanent renovation is that the long-time lucrative business with the diabetes drug Lantus, which is mainly produced in Frankfurt, has become increasingly sluggish since patent protection expired. Sanofi can no longer generate sales of more than six billion euros with the drug, according to the figures presented on Friday, in 2021 it was still almost 2.5 billion euros, again less than the year before. The Paris headquarters of the group has long since declared diabetes research at the Höchst site to be over.

However, the production is not completely finished either, because the Lantus product is still one of the three most important sales drivers for the group, and it continues to sell well, especially in Asia.

Sanofi is currently only redeeming a similar amount with flu vaccinations and with Dupixent, the group's blockbuster.

More than five billion euros were thus earned in 2021, a good 50 percent more than a year ago.

However, it is largely produced in France.

Mainly because of this remedy for neurodermatitis and severe asthma, Sanofi was able to increase its sales to almost 38 billion euros, an increase of seven percent.

The profit even increased twice as much.

Sanofi, as the new logo also shows, no longer wants to be understood as a simple drug manufacturer, they now see themselves as a dynamic, innovative and faster-growing biotech company, as the group headquarters in Paris says.

"That's where the journey will go," Bockelt is also sure.

This is shown by the group's most recent acquisitions and investments, also in Frankfurt.

Especially since the Höchst location also benefits directly from the blockbuster Dupixent: Among other things, medical auto-injectors are manufactured in the industrial park, with which patients can inject the drug against neurodermatitis themselves, similar to the insulin pens.

Sanofi continues to research a Covid remedy

And then there is also the filling line for the corona vaccine.

Sanofi originally intended it for its own product, but because the development of an mRNA vaccine did not progress and was finally stopped completely in autumn 2021, Biontech's vaccine based on the new mRNA technology is currently being filled in Höchst.

Although Sanofi is still researching a Covid remedy, it is based on conventional vaccination technology.

Whether this will ever be bottled in Frankfurt is less likely, Hudson is under political pressure that the Paris group invests more in France.

Sanofi hasn't completely given up on mRNA technology, but is now using it to treat cancer.

Research on this is ongoing in France and in the greater Boston area in the USA.

But when a filling and packaging location for the new agent is then sought, Frankfurt can refer to its Biontech experience.

What CFO Jean-Baptiste Chasseloup de Chatillon had to say about media reports that Industriepark Höchst could be sold to an investor should also have attracted interest in Frankfurt - Sanofi is not only the largest tenant, but also one of the three major shareholders of the industrial park company Infraserv Höchst.

This had fueled fears that Sanofi could reduce its involvement in Frankfurt in the long term.

In general, negotiations are not commented on, said the Sanofi CFO.

But in this case he can clearly say that there are "no talks" about selling the shares.

How permanent this cancellation is, however, was not known.

Because it was also said in Paris that the operation of an industrial park is definitely not part of Sanofi's core business.