Sanofi CEO Is Open to Deals of Up to $2.6 Billion This Year

Sanofi, the French drugmaker that bought Genzyme Corp. of the U.S., is planning “bolt-on” acquisitions of up to 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) this year, Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher said.

Viehbacher, who defines his acquisition strategy as a “string of pearls,” will keep on adding “more pearls” going forward, the 51-year-old executive said in an interview in San Francisco today.

Paris-based Sanofi will stick to transactions “in the order of 1 billion to 2 billion euros per year,” Viehbacher said. “It’s not a budget. I am pretty happy with the shape of the company. All we want to do is continue to look for opportunities, particularly in emerging markets.”

Sanofi is interested in countries that “aren’t everybody’s focus,” beyond China and India, Viehbacher said. It’s also looking for deals to grow in animal healthcare, he said, declining to name specific targets.

“The trick in M&A is to go find something not everybody is looking at,” Viehbacher said.

Sanofi isn’t interested in acquisitions to grow in the hepatitis C business, he said. It will privilege partnerships and investments in “early-stage” assets to grow its research pipeline, Viehbacher added.

The $20.1 billion takeover of Genzyme, the largest maker of medicines for rare genetic disorders, was engineered to give Sanofi access to innovative treatments that are less vulnerable to generic competition.

Genzyme was a “bigger pearl than the others,” Viehbacher said.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Albertina Torsoli at atorsoli@bloomberg.net

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