Why Sanofi is investing in health care ecosystems

On Monday, Sanofi’s global health unit launched a new brand and fund as part of its goal to bring 30 essential medicines to 40 lower-income countries, more than half of which are in Africa. The new brand called Impact will carry nine products for neglected diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis; six for anti-infectives, or drugs that prevent the spread of infections; and 15 for noncommunicable diseases, including for different types of cancer, and insulin glargine for diabetes. Meanwhile, a new fund, also called Impact, will provide financial and technical support to entrepreneurs that can offer scalable solutions for health care delivery in the 40 countries identified by the company. These include most low-income countries as per the World Bank, except for Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mali, North Korea, and Sudan; as well as small island developing states such as Haiti and Tuvalu; and some Central, South, and Southeast Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Cambodia. These latest initiatives follow the launch of Sanofi Global Health in 2021, a new nonprofit unit under the pharmaceutical company whose aim is to increase access to a portfolio of its medicines considered essential by the World Health Organization. “Our portfolio of 30 essential medicines includes first line treatments for diabetes, hypertension, thrombosis, stroke/prevention, [breast, lung, and prostate cancers], malaria and tuberculosis. We work with global and local regulatory bodies to ensure systematic availability and with international distributors to reduce mark ups and optimize prices,” a Sanofi spokesperson said. It’s not enough to bring in medicines Jon Fairest, who’s been with Sanofi for more than two decades and previously served as the company’s head in Africa, leads the global health unit. Before taking on the role, Fairest said the unit had already started looking closely at the 40 countries they’ll be working with, what the challenges and needs are, and saw the critical role of partnerships, education, and support for innovators in the health care ecosystem. Many of the countries the company has identified have a “very weak health care ecosystem,” Fairest said. If the company wants to succeed in getting its medicines to people needing them, he said there’s a real need to invest in educating patients and health care professionals. “So when you get a global health product from Sanofi, you get support around health care, the health care programs that go with it,” Fairest said. “And the reason for that is: There's no point in selling a batch of insulins into a country … [if] no one knows how to use it or how to manage the patient effectively.” Diabetes, he said, is one perfect example. There’s a real need to increase diabetes diagnosis and education to prevent people from developing one. The products under Impact are “dedicated for nonprofit distribution,” which means sales from the products will be redirected into programs, Fairest said. “We're committed to making no profit,” he said. “We’re a social business. There may be a margin in there but at the end of the day, any margin goes straight back into the programs, so I have a self-sustained non-for-profit business unit. That’s the idea,” he said. Meanwhile, the fund for Impact, for which the company is investing €25 million ($26.1 million) at the moment, will serve as an “accelerator” for health care delivery in countries. Fairest said that “there’s an incredible amount of innovation” in health care in the countries they’ve identified to work in, from patient education, and supply chain to disease management programs. The fund, he said, will be an opportunity for them to work with entrepreneurs to help the delivery of health care across the disease areas the company has identified as a focus: infectious diseases, oncology, hypertension, and diabetes. Fairest said they’re already working with a company called Vula Mobile, based in South Africa, which uses a mobile application and an online platform to connect clinicians to each other as well as clinicians to their patients. They’re helping the company expand across Africa. The other is mPharma, based in Ghana, which purchases drugs for pharmacies and uses its purchasing power to negotiate with manufacturers for lower drug prices. But a crucial point is countries’ willingness to partner and address health care challenges, which is easily done in some countries and more challenging in others. In places such as Afghanistan and Syria, for example, he said it can be difficult to have a dialogue “because you don't really know who's in control and who's in power.” “Once you identify the challenges, and they have the willingness to partner with you to make things happen, it's much easier to go on the journey. If you have a country that doesn't have health care on the agenda — which is probably very, very unusual these days — then it's much harder to get moving,” Fairest said.