Sanofi Invests €300 Million To Expand Biologics Site in Belgium

19 april 2016

Sanofi Invests €300 Million To Expand Biologics Site in Belgium

- Additions to existing site will support production of monoclonal antibodies -

Paris, France - April 19, 2016 - Sanofi today announced a €300 million investment to expand its site in Geel, Belgium. The investment furthers Sanofi's commitment to driving the future of biologics by expanding manufacturing and commercial capabilities in order to ensure quality, capacity, and scale.

Through the investment, Sanofi plans to adapt and expand existing production capabilities to support Sanofi's pipeline of monoclonal antibodies. Updates to the existing facility will include the development of new laboratories focused on quality control and manufacturing sciences.

"This investment not only strengthens our goal of becoming a leader in biologics but represents our focus on patients' needs," said Philippe Luscan, Executive Vice President, Global Industrial Affairs and President of Sanofi in France. "We have a robust development pipeline of biological molecules, including monoclonal antibodies, and this investment furthers our work and expertise in key disease areas such as cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and atopic dermatitis. This is an exciting opportunity for our site in Geel and we are very pleased with the support we received from the Government of Flanders, the Flanders Investment and Trade and the Flanders Entrepreneurship agency."

"As an open economy, Flanders thrives on international trade and investments," said Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of Flanders. "Life sciences is a sector with many innovative opportunities, not only for multinationals but also for small and medium sized enterprises. Locally, we have succeeded in attracting significant investments year after year and the Government of Flanders is right to keep investing heavily in this sector. Sanofi's decision to select Flanders reinforces our expertise and professional talent to support these types of investments."

Sanofi and its specialty care global business unit, Sanofi Genzyme, have already invested €600 million in the Geel site, which began industrial biotech activities in 2001. The site is currently responsible for the global production of a protein therapy for Pompe disease, a rare, genetic muscular disease that is often fatal. The protein therapy is produced using cell cultures in large bioreactors, followed by a purification process.

Through this latest investment, the state-of-the-art facility will add more than 8000 m ² of manufacturing floor space, enabling the site to increase its overall production capacity and diversify to other drugs and therapeutic areas. In support of this expansion, Sanofi intends to recruit and leverage the expertise of highly-skilled biotechnology professionals to fulfill a range of job functions.  

As part of the company's strategic roadmap, Sanofi aims to launch several biologics in the upcoming years, pairing technology, cutting-edge manufacturing and operations capabilities to deliver high-quality products that could improve patient outcomes.

About Sanofi
Sanofi, a global healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients' needs. Sanofi has core strengths in diabetes solutions, human vaccines, innovative drugs, consumer healthcare, emerging markets, animal health and Genzyme. Sanofi is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN ) and in New York (NYSE: SNY ).

Sanofi Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in 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 estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "plans" and similar expressions. Although Sanofi's 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 FDA or the EMA, 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 absence of guarantee that the product candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, the Group's ability to benefit from external growth opportunities, trends in exchange rates and prevailing interest rates, the impact of cost containment initiatives and subsequent changes thereto, the average number of shares outstanding as well as those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in Sanofi's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.

Contacts:

Media Relations Nicolas Kressmann Tel: +33 (0)1 53 77 46 46 mr@sanofi.com

Investor Relations Sébastien Martel Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 77 45 45 ir@sanofi.com

Global IA Biologics Communications Michaela Paudler-Debus Tel.: +49 (0) 69 305-18411 Michaela.Paudler-Debus@sanofi.com

---