Sanofi

Sanofi was founded on February 15, 1973 as a subsidiary of Elf Aquitaine (a French oil company subsequently acquired by Total), when Elf Aquitaine took control of the Labaz group, a pharmaceutical company formed in 1947 by Sociéte Belge de l'Azote et des Produits Chimiques du Marly. Labaz had developed benziodarone in 1957.

In 1993, Sanofi made a move into the Eastern Europe market by acquiring a controlling interest in Chinoin, a Hungarian drug company whose 1992, sales totaled about US$104 million. In the same year, Sanofi made its first significant venture into the US, and strengthened its presence in Eastern Europe, by first partnering with Sterling Winthrop and then acquiring the prescription pharmaceuticals business in 1994. Sanofi was incorporated under the laws of France in 1994, as a société anonyme, a form of limited liability company.

Synthélabo was founded in 1970, through the merger of two French pharmaceutical laboratories, Laboratoires Dausse (founded in 1834) and Laboratoires Robert & Carrière (founded in 1899). In 1973, the French cosmetics group L'Oréal acquired the majority of its share capital. In 1991, Synthelabo acquired Laboratories Delalande and Laboratoires Delagrange and, as a result of that deal, picked up the product metoclopramide.

Sanofi-Synthélabo was formed in 1999 when Sanofi merged with Synthélabo. At the time of the merger, Sanofi was the second largest pharmaceutical group in France in terms of sales and Synthélabo was the third largest. The merged company was based in Paris, France.

The merged companies focused on pharmaceuticals, divesting several businesses soon after the merger, including beauty, diagnostics, animal health and nutrition, custom chemicals, and two medical equipment businesses.

Aventis was formed in 1999, when the French company Rhône-Poulenc S.A. merged with the German corporation Hoechst Marion Roussel, which itself was formed from the 1995 merger of Hoechst AG with Cassella, Roussel Uclaf, and Marion Merrell Dow. Hoechst AG, the majority partner at the time in Hoechst Marion Roussel, was itself a merger of two of the three forcibly separated subsidiaries of IG Farben, exploiter of Auschwitz slave labor and supplier of Zyklon B during The Holocaust. …

The following products are listed on the Sanofi Genzyme website. Generic drug names are given in parentheses following the brand name.

Product recall and effects: The epinephrine (adrenaline) auto-injection devices made by Sanofi SA currently on the market in the US and Canada were voluntarily recalled on 28 October 2015. The reason given by Sanofi was that the products had been found to potentially have inaccurate dosage delivery systems, which might include failure to deliver the drugs.

Sanofi US also added the following warning: If a patient experiencing a serious allergic reaction (i.e., anaphylaxis) did not receive the intended dose, there could be significant health consequences, including death, because anaphylaxis is a potentially life‑threatening condition.

In its news release on 28 October 2015, Sanofi Canada stated that it was "actively working with suppliers of alternative epinephrine auto-injectors to have a full stock available in Canada as soon as possible. Canadian customers were asked to immediately return the Allerject product to their local pharmacy to obtain an alternate epinephrine auto-injector."

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also filed a news release, confirming that the recall involved all Auvi-Q currently on the market in the United States. The FDA release went on to provide information for consumers re: exchanging the device for another brand of product, also provided on the Auvi-Q web site. Sanofi US would provide reimbursement for out of pocket costs incurred for the purchase of new, alternate epinephrine auto-injectors with proof of purchase.

The alternate products expected to most commonly replace the recalled Sanofi devices were the EpiPens made by Mylan in the US and by Pfizer—under license from Mylan—in Canada. Mylan already had an 85% market share of the auto-injectors in the USA in the first half of 2015. Maylan was expected to benefit from the recall by its competitor Sanofi, according to a report published in the Fierce Pharma newsletter of 2 November 2015. …

In January 2012, Sanofi moved its head office location to 54, Rue La Boétie in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. This former mansion designed by architect René-Patouillard had previously been the head office of Alcatel-Lucent.

Sanofi's previous head office was located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, at 174 Avenue de France. The architecture of the head office is of the predominant style of the area surrounding the François Mitterrand Library. After Sanofi and Aventis merged, the employees at the former Aventis head office in Schiltigheim, Alsace, moved to Paris.

In November 2022, Sanofi moved into its new global headquarters in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, at 46-48 Avenue de la Grande Armée.

In 2025 Sanofi opened a new 260,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters in May 2025 at M Station West in Morristown, New Jersey. Sanofi moved its US headquarters to Morristown, NJ from Bridgewater, NJ which is home to other large companies such as Brother USA, Biocon Biologics, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, and BAUSCH Health.

In addition to internal research and development activities, Sanofi is also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example in the area of non-clinical safety assessment is the InnoMed PredTox project The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative of EFPIA and the European Commission.

In June 2010, Sanofi and the Charité University of Berlin signed a cooperation agreement for the research and development of medicines and therapies.

In January 2026, Sanofi announced a strategic investment of up to $25 million in Adagene to collaborate on masked antibody therapies.