Amid mounting concerns about the state of vaccine policy in the U.S., Sanofi's leadership is keeping a cool head while acknowledging that the company's immunizations sales are slated to decline again this year.
The comments—which included a defense of vaccines by Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson—come as Sanofi reported (PDF) Thursday that its total vaccine sales fell 2.5% in the fourth quarter and 1.2% for the entire year, reaching 7.9 billion euros (roughly $9.5 billion) for all of 2025.
The company again expects “vaccine sales to slightly decline in 2026,” Sanofi’s chief financial officer, François Roger, said on a call with analysts, although he highlighted a few bright spots in the business’ performance last year, too.
Notably, the company’s roster of influenza shots performed “better than anticipated” in the fourth quarter, and Beyfortus—Sanofi’s AstraZeneca-partnered antibody for infant protection against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—grew 9.5% over the full year to reach sales of 1.78 billion euros ($2.1 billion), despite a rocky fourth quarter.
Overall, the company was “very happy” with Beyfortus’ 2025 performance, Sanofi’s vaccines chief Thomas Triomphe said on the call, attributing the immunizing antibody’s sales win to Beyfortus’ growing geographic footprint.
When the topic of U.S. vaccine policy changes came up during the Q&A portion of Sanofi’s call, Triomphe reiterated that Beyfortus is unaffected by the recent changes to the country’s childhood immunization schedule.
“Now, will it create—and to what extent—confusion for parents and HCPs? It’s too early to say, and we need to see that in the coming months,” he explained.
CEO Hudson, for his part, was quick to admit on a call with journalists earlier Thursday that there’s “no doubt that in the short term, there’s some challenge from the administration on the pediatric vaccines,” referring to the second Trump administration in the U.S.
Still, that won’t deter Sanofi from its immunization mission and may even present the company with some unique opportunities.
“It’s a good time to make acquisitions in vaccines, with the uncertainty,” Hudson explained. “The risk of people trying to compete with you for an asset is slightly lower.”
He noted that Sanofi made several vaccine-focused acquisitions last year, culminating in its December purchase of hepatitis B shot maker Dynavax Technologies for $2.2 billion.
More broadly speaking, however, he noted that Sanofi takes a “long-term view” of the field.
“In this industry, governments across the world change with some frequency—predictable—and we have to think long-term what’s best for patients,” he said. “We don’t make clinical decisions based on politics or sentiment in the now; we make [them] on what’s best for patients, and that’s how we rank our projects against each other.”
Regarding the U.S. specifically, if companies keep innovation at the forefront of their work and have the evidence to back up their work, the current administration “can understand you,” and companies “can still make great progress,” according to Hudson.
The CEO concluded his take by standing firm in the defense of vaccines, calling them the “No. 1 gift to public health” after clean water.
“Bottom line is, we have to continue to defend with evidence the impact, the positive impact of vaccines, and we will always do that, irrespective of who is in office or not, and that’s our job,” he said.
Turbulent vaccine landscape notwithstanding, Sanofi fared well in 2025 and expects that momentum to largely continue into this year.
In the fourth quarter, the company grew sales 13.3% at constant currencies to 11.3 billion euros (roughly $13.5 billion), and during that period, recent pharma launches grew nearly 50%, driven in large part by mastocytosis med Ayvakit and Altuviiio for hemophilia A.
Sanofi’s total 2025 sales reached 43.62 billion euros ($52 billion), representing a 6.2% increase over the prior year.
Rather predictably, Regeneron-partnered immunology stalwart Dupixent did gangbusters last year—and in the fourth quarter in particular—on the strength of recent launches in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bullous pemphigoid and chronic spontaneous urticaria. And the “foundations of [its] indications grew as well,” Brian Foard, Sanofi’s head of specialty care, said on the company’s call.
While those launches yielded a major boost in the fourth quarter, with Dupixent delivering more than 32% growth at 4.2 billion euros ($5 billion) in sales, Sanofi expects that pace of growth to “normalize” heading into 2026, according to Foard, who reiterated that the drug remains on track to hit sales of around 22 billion euros by 2030.
For the full year, Dupixent lassoed up 15.7 billion euros ($18.7 billion) in sales, good for more than 25% growth over 2024.
Looking ahead, Sanofi anticipates that its 2026 sales will grow at a “high single-digit percentage.”
That forecast is “essentially in line with consensus,” analysts at Leerink Partners wrote in a note to clients Thursday.