Sanofi Ousts CEO Hudson, Appoints Belén Garijo to Fix Drug Pipeline

French drugmaker Sanofi ousted CEO Paul Hudson on February 12, 2026, ending a six-year tenure marked by a stalled drive to replace blockbuster drugs going off patent and rising pressure from U.S. anti-vaccine policy and rhetoric. The company appointed Belén Garijo, the 65-year-old head of German drugmaker Merck KGaA, as the new chief executive. She will take over in late April and will be Sanofi's first female CEO.

Hudson, 58, who was pushed out only two months before his tenure was up for renewal, did not respond to a request for comment. He had admitted on a call with analysts late last month that his plans had not moved as quickly as anticipated. "If you'd have asked me back in 2020, will (a turnaround) take between five and seven years for Sanofi, I'd say absolutely not. We'll go faster, we're smarter, we're stronger. It was not to be the case," he told analysts on January 29. "So we have to be a little bit patient."

Sanofi shares fell some 3.5% on Thursday, with some analysts pointing to Garijo's relatively low profile and mixed record at Merck. Sanofi's stock was down 25% in the last year. "The CEO change at Sanofi is a sign that R&D transformation has failed or is happening too slowly," said a portfolio manager at Sanofi investor Union Investment. "Belen's priority at Sanofi will be to increase R&D productivity."

Developing new drugs has proved to be Sanofi's biggest issue. Dupixent accounts for over 30% of the company's revenues and it has yet to find a drug to take over once patents begin expiring early in the 2030s, which has weighed on Sanofi's share price. "Replacing Dupixent is the key strategic challenge for Sanofi," said a partner at consultancy firm Roland Berger and a Sanofi employee until 2018.

Hudson had been hired with a mandate to revive the company's drug pipeline and share price – which initially buoyed Sanofi – but has struggled to reduce its dependence on Dupixent and the turnaround stalled. Hudson had also pursued bolt-on acquisitions in search of new medicines to help drive growth once its blockbuster asthma drug Dupixent loses key patents in the early 2030s. The lack of a successor to Dupixent, also used to treat eczema, heaped on the pressure.

Vaccines, which make up close to a fifth of revenues, are another major issue as sales have dipped in recent years. Hudson had flagged weakness in the segment linked to a more hostile attitude towards vaccines from the U.S. health administration. In January Sanofi said that vaccine sales would be "slightly negative" this year, partly due to U.S. policy changes under President Donald Trump.

Sanofi, among the world's largest vaccine makers, released a string of underwhelming trial updates in 2025, which cast a shadow over the company and helped drive its shares down around 25% over the past year, lagging Europe's STOXX pharmaceutical index.

Shareholders have seen a 33% return on their investment, including dividends, since September 2019 when Hudson took over, but that's well below UK-based rivals AstraZeneca and GSK, which saw returns of 133% and 65% respectively during the same period.

Garijo will be Sanofi's first female CEO - and the only woman CEO at a large-cap global drugmaker after GSK's Emma Walmsley stepped down this year. She was the first woman to head a German DAX-listed company when she took on the top role at Merck KGaA. Garijo, who has headed Germany's Merck KGaA since 2021, was described as bold, detail-focused and someone who got things done, but also had a mixed record on R&D and the share price had dropped during her tenure.

As head of Merck's pharma business, Garijo steered the group's supply chain through the COVID-19 pandemic. She oversaw deals including the group's $3.9 billion purchase of SpringWorks Therapeutics last year. However, Merck KGaA suffered setbacks in drug development during her tenure and only three new drugs made it to the market.

A portfolio manager at Sanofi investor Union Investment lauded Garijo's handling of a complex company - Merck has units from health to technology - and a pricing deal sealed with U.S. President Donald Trump last year, but said she needed to step up after several R&D failures at Merck. "She needs to improve her R&D track record."

One investor who worked with Garijo, asking not to be named, said the "visible stuff" - R&D and business development - had not gone well, while adding she had improved the structure of Merck internally and protected the company's margins. A managing partner at a London-based life sciences investment firm said that Garijo had turned a company "stuck in rules and hierarchy" into a much more bold and effective entity. "She... challenged executives to have guts to stand up for their decisions and actually get shit done," said the managing partner, who previously ran M-Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Merck KGaA, during part of Garijo's tenure.

A second investor who worked with Garijo said she was full of energy, dynamic and "on top of things" and also had deep knowledge of Sanofi. "She knows the house, don't underestimate the importance of that," said the person, who also asked not to be named.

Sanofi said Garijo, who worked at the French company for years until 2011, would bring "increased rigour to the implementation of" the company's strategy. Garijo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Garijo previously worked for 15 years at Sanofi and was a board member at French cosmetics giant L'Oreal.

A clinical pharmacology specialist, Garijo began her career as a physician at La Paz Hospital in Madrid and is known for her operational execution and attention to detail. Garijo has "more operations experience than a science background, so will be interesting to see how she can reinvigorate the R&D department in Sanofi," said the CEO of Global Health Invest, a Danish healthcare investment fund that holds Sanofi shares.

Some analysts and investors said Garijo had not been on many people's radar, which caught the market slightly by surprise - and they speculated how long she would stay in her new job. "I think she's a transition CEO. What she's good at, she's someone who can put the organisation under pressure," a consultant said. "She's not there to stay forever."

Sanofi said in a statement that Hudson would step down as of February 17, while Garijo will take the role at the end of the group's shareholder meeting on April 29. Sanofi board member Olivier Charmeil will serve as acting CEO during the transition. "She has the experience and profile to accelerate the pace, strengthen the quality of execution of strategy and lead the next growth cycle of the company," the Sanofi Chair said in a statement.