Over the years, as Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent racked up new indications and approached the French pharma giant’s 10 billion euro peak sales goal, analysts had started to wonder whether the drug might end up overshooting the target. With Dupixent now well on the way, Sanofi is raising its peak sales ambitions on the star drug to more than 13 billion euros.
In an update ahead of Sanofi’s immunology day Tuesday, the company said it expects Dupixent’s peak sales to grow beyond 13 billion euros ($14.44 billion). In addition, data readouts in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease next year could usher in even more sales potential for the medicine, the company said.
The peak sales upgrade comes as Dupixent has been on a roll commercially, generating 5.25 billion euros last year, a 53% increase from 2020. To get there, Dupixent dominated in its original indication, atopic dermatitis, and added new FDA-approved uses in asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps.
Looking forward, Sanofi expects 11 new submissions for the drug “across indications and age groups” by 2025. To that end, Dupixent posted positive data in eosinophilic esophagitis last month.
But the drug also came up short in a trial in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), according to results announced earlier this year. Sanofi and Regeneron nonetheless continue to explore the drug’s potential in CSU. Previously, Dupixent had succeeded in a phase 3 trial in moderate to severe CSU, where Dupixent was added to antihistamines. The failed phase 3 was conducted in patients who did not improve on Novartis and Roche’s Xolair.
“This truly unique medicine is only at the beginning of its journey to helping potentially millions of patients,” Sanofi’s head of global specialty care, Bill Sibold, said in a statement this week.
Dupixent has been a priority for Sanofi since CEO Paul Hudson joined the drugmaker in 2019 and laid out his “play to win” strategy. Under that approach, the company scaled down in fields where it was struggling and doubled down in places where it felt it could succeed. Dupixent and vaccines were two beneficiaries.
As the strategy has played out, Sanofi’s Chief Financial Officer Jean-Baptiste Chasseloup de Chatillon earlier this year said the company wanted to create the pharma industry’s “strongest’ immunology franchise.” His remarks came at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January.
