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TOUGH YEAR
Sanofi’s interest comes after a tough year for the French drugmaker after falling behind rivals with less experience in the COVID-19 vaccine race, a major blow to CEO Paul Hudson who joined the company almost two years ago.
Sanofi warned last year its traditional, protein-based COVID-19 jab developed with GlaxoSmithKline showed an insufficient immune response in older people, delaying its launch until toward the end of 2021.
Hudson has also been under increasing pressure to reduce the company’s dependence on its star eczema treatment Dupixent to boost earnings. Earlier this year, it agreed to fill and pack millions of doses of shots made by Pfizer/BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.