BIG PHARMA EARNINGS WATCH: SANOFI

Sanofi Touts Patent Thickets, Legal Strategy to Block Competition to Dupixent into 2040s While Continuing to Hike the Blockbuster Drug’s Price

During Sanofi’s recent first quarter earnings call, executives for the Big Pharma giant proudly pledged to continue executing an anti-competitive strategy to extend monopoly pricing on blockbuster eczema and asthma treatment Dupixent. The brand name drug company also reported beating Wall Street earnings forecasts, following several price increases across its portfolio earlier this year, including a five percent increase on Dupixent.

When an analyst from Morgan Stanley asked which patents Sanofi was “most confident in for extension” around Dupixent, and whether the company could extend exclusivity to 2034, Sanofi’s General Counsel Roy Papatheodorou, pointed to the breadth of the Big Pharma giant’s patent thickets surrounding the brand name blockbuster.

“Picking one patent out of tens of patents is not a good testament to the amount of innovation we’ve done for Dupixent over the years,” Papatheodorou said. “We have multiple strong patents going up to 2045. We believe we have a very strong patent portfolio and intend to vigorously defend all of them.”

That would be nearly a decade and a half of exclusivity beyond the originally expected patent expiration for Dupixent in March 2031.

When pressed by another analyst on the timeline for potential biosimilar entry and patent settlements around Dupixent, Papatheodorou doubled down, stating: “[a] reminder that [Dupixent] is a biologic. You’re asking me about settlements, and we are sitting here with 50 plus patents in the U.S., none of which have yet been challenged. So, if we wanted to give clarity to our investors of the strength, and even if we have people lining up to discuss, there is nobody at the moment becausenobody’s challenged our patents.”

As Sanofi’s earnings call put on display, Big Pharma’s priority is more often maximizing and extending periods of exclusivity and monopoly pricing for blockbuster products, rather than any true innovation into improved clinical value for patients from existing medications or new treatments.

Get the full recap on Sanofi’s recent first quarter earnings here:

• Sanofi reported strong first quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street estimates. 
• The French drugmaker reported total sales of $12.29 billion for the first quarter. 
• Sanofi’s blockbuster eczema and asthma treatment Dupixent brought in $4.88 billion for the quarter, well above analyst expectations, and is expected to generate $30 billion in annual sales by 2030.

Sanofi’s Q1 earnings follow price hikes across their portfolio in recent years – including at the start of 2026.

• In January, Sanofi raised the price of eight prescription drugs, including Dupixent, by five percent.
• Throughout 2025, Sanofi hiked prices on 11 prescription drugs.
• In 2024, Sanofi increased the price of nine prescription drugs, including blockbuster drug Dupixent, by six percent.
• Sanofi hiked prices on 20 prescription drugs in 2023.
• Sanofi hiked prices on more than 11 prescription drugs in January 2022 – and engaged in an additional round of price hikes that summer.

Stay tuned as we continue to monitor first quarter earnings calls from brand name drug companies in the coming weeks.

Read more on Q1 earnings from Johnson & Johnson HERE.

Learn more about solutions to lower prescription drug prices and hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.