Sanofi's Dual-Track Digital Innovation Strategy to Defend Its Leadership in Diabetes Care

According to the rankings by PharmExec magazine, Sanofi’s prescription drug business revenue in 2017 was $34.078 billion, ranking sixth globally. Sanofi is also a leader in the field of diabetes medications, with this category generating $6.56 billion in revenue in 2017, a 12.90% decrease from the previous year.

However, due to various factors, Sanofi’s dominance in the diabetes market is being shaken—U.S. diabetes sales dropped by one-fifth in 2017. Sanofi’s growth engine is gradually shifting toward specialty drugs in oncology, immunology, and other therapeutic areas.

To better serve patients and maintain its market position, Sanofi is actively innovating by providing digital solutions to reverse its declining momentum. In contrast to the superficial efforts of other pharmaceutical companies, Sanofi’s investment is more substantial and systematic, representing a decisive last stand.

Furthermore, in clinical trials, Sanofi has collaborated with multiple digital health companies specializing in wearable devices, big data, and biomarkers.Collaborate to comprehensively drive digital transformation.动脉网 (WeChat ID: vcbeat) provides an analysis of this development.

Replacing the Old with the New: The Need for Digital Solutions

One of the primary challenges Sanofi needs to address is the decline in revenue from its diabetes business. After the patent for its best-selling drug, Lantus, expired in 2015, sales dropped by nearly 20% in 2017. Although Toujeo, marketed as an enhanced version of Lantus, was launched, the diabetes business continues to exhibit an overall downward trend.

Data Source: New Health World (Unit: €100 million)

For Sanofi’s diabetes medications, which have long treatment cycles and have been on the market for an extended period, patients tend to consider brand reputation and services when choosing treatments with comparable efficacy. Furthermore, the management of chronic conditions such as diabetes requires a focus on prevention and prognosis, intervening through improved patient adherence and behavioral management. These unique characteristics of diabetes create opportunities for the integration of digital health management solutions.

Strengthening the management of diabetes medications is also a requirement for controlling health insurance costs. In the United States, for example, chronic diseases account for 86% of healthcare expenditures. The treatment of chronic conditions requires patients to make greater efforts in behavioral changes. In the past, such advice from doctors often went unheeded. With the health support provided by digital tools, patients can now achieve better post-discharge management, reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization rates, lessen the impact of the disease on their daily lives, and simultaneously meet the goal of controlling health insurance costs.

Sanofi’s primary battlefield, diabetes care, has virtually become a fiercely contested arena for digital innovation among pharmaceutical companies. A survey by Research2Guidance shows that a total of 325,000 health apps were launched in 2017, with 27% of mHealth apps targeting diabetes. Compared to developers in other fields, pharmaceutical companies have invested heavily in this segment. As shown in the table, investment by pharmaceutical companies in diabetes apps accounts for 40% of their total app-related investments, second only to their spending on medication-related apps.

Data Source: Research2Guidance

Whether it is the crisis brought about by the surge of generic drugs or the concerted efforts of governments worldwide to cool down drug prices, pharmaceutical giants are reshaping their strategic layouts amidst these various factors. Discussing the reasons behind Sanofi’s collaboration with digital health companies, Rachel Sha, Vice President of Sanofi, stated, “Investors, entrepreneurs, and other major corporations in the digital health sector are beginning to form an ecosystem that cannot be ignored, and they possess sustained insights. Their long-term goal is to improve patients’ health outcomes, and they have set ambitious targets, which align with Sanofi’s own objectives.”

Sanofi's Typical Layout in Digital Innovation

Established a joint venture with Google's Verily to create a virtual diabetes clinic

In 2016, Sanofi and Verily established the joint venture Onduo. Google’s Verily and Sanofi jointly invested $500 million. The two parties designed a comprehensive virtual diabetes clinic on the Onduo platform.

Onduo aims to integrate hardware and software tools for type 2 diabetes into a single platform accessible via smartphones. In addition to personalized care and daily support, Onduo’s platform is dedicated to keeping patients with diabetes connected to their physicians. It assigns a personal care manager to each user to help develop care plans and track patient status at every visit.

Many companies have announced integration with the upcoming Onduo platform, including Voluntis Insulia (a digital insulin dosing recommendation and guidance system) and Glytec’s Glucommander Outpatient.

Following its establishment, Onduo announced that it would pilot the platform in clinical care settings. In 2018, the platform was to be deployed within hospital and insurance provider networks; the specific organizations involved have not yet been disclosed. Currently, its most prominent partners are the Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations.

It can be said that Onduo primarily integrates healthcare providers and digital health providers. On the patient-facing side, Sanofi collaborates with Verily to transform patients’ every action and behavior into data that can be used to improve treatment outcomes.

Partner with Evidation Health to collect more real-world, valid patient data

In 2017, Sanofi announced a collaboration with the biomarker company Evidation Health to collect more real-world, valid patient data and improve diabetes treatment. The term “Evidation” conveys transparency; as a biomarker company, Evidation Health primarily focuses on quantifying patients’ daily health metrics. For example, biomarker companies can analyze data such as message counts, taps, and clicks, and employ natural language processing to analyze speech, thereby gaining deeper insights into patients’ health status.

Sanofi announced that over the next three years, it will leverage Evidation Health’s Real Life Learning Platform to gain insights into patients’ disease status in their daily lives and innovatively develop solutions to help improve treatment outcomes. For example, Sanofi has already partnered with Evidation Health to guide patients with type 2 diabetes in making lifestyle changes.

Evidation Health was selected by Sanofi primarily due to its expertise in quantifying the impact of real-world factors on patients’ final treatment outcomes.

Partnering with Nutrino to Transform Dietary Habits of Patients with Chronic Diseases

To enable behavioral changes in patients, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive ecosystem. In addition to integrating diabetes management systems, Sanofi is also driving changes in patients’ daily lives, including their diet, clothing, housing, and transportation. Nutrino is one such example.

Nutrino is a digital health company focused on nutritional wellness. Sanofi will provide Nutrino’s FoodPrint service to educate users on the connection between food and health.

The primary goal of the partnership is to change the dietary habits of patients with chronic diseases. Yaron Hadad, CEO of Nutrino, stated in an interview with MobiHealthNews, “Our aim is to help people with various chronic conditions better manage their diets, particularly in relation to the medications they are taking. We started with diabetes, and we are likely to focus on other chronic diseases as well.”

Hadad said, “I think people generally underestimate the power of food, especially when it is combined with medication. I am very excited to have the opportunity to provide people with genuine insights into food through FoodPrint, and to help them truly visualize and understand how food affects their bodies in a highly personalized way.”

Previously, Sanofi also launched a mobile game for children with type 1 diabetes in the UK. Aimed at families and children affected by type 1 diabetes, it seeks to disseminate knowledge about diabetes care. Patients can earn mobile points by playing the game and unlock related educational content. Another diabetes app, Monster Manor, was co-developed by Sanofi and Ayogo. This app rewards children with type 2 diabetes for regularly monitoring their blood glucose levels.

In addition, Sanofi and its partner AgaMatrix jointly launched the first iPhone-connected medical device on the market—the iBGStar blood glucose meter.

Clinical Research: Integrating Hardware and Software, Extending Services Through Digital Innovation

Sanofi Vice President Rachel Sha stated that Sanofi adopts a two-pronged approach to digital innovation. “At Sanofi, we are fortunate to have a very clear set of digital priorities, backed by support from the highest levels of the company and even the Board of Directors, so we know what is important to us.”

She stated that although Sanofi’s innovations span all areas of drug development and administration, the company focuses on two key aspects across every domain: drug discovery and “drug plus,” which integrates pharmaceuticals with hardware and software to improve treatment outcomes. In all fields, Sanofi extends its services through collaborations with external partners.

TriNetX Improves Patient Recruitment

TriNetX boasts a vast database that enables Sanofi to pre-test the feasibility of trial designs. In the past, pharmaceutical companies have faced situations where they designed studies only to discover later that the target patient populations did not actually exist. To address this issue, Sanofi is leveraging TriNetX’s platform to run all trial designs, thereby assessing the feasibility of conducting these studies and ensuring the availability of eligible patients. Additionally, TriNetX utilizes electronic health record (EHR) systems to optimize patient recruitment.

In addition, Sanofi collaborates with MDConnect and TrialSpark to conduct online patient recruitment for clinical trials, thereby shortening the time to market for its drugs.

Science 37 Reduces Clinical Trial Failure Rates

In addition to accelerating patient recruitment, Sanofi’s clinical trials also need to retain participants and reduce the failure rate. By partnering with Science 37 to reimagine the clinical trial process—shifting trial sites from hospitals to patients’ homes—Sanofi has reduced recruitment time while improving participant retention and diversity.

Science37 leverages telemedicine to enable patients to participate in clinical trials from home, while also providing remote patient monitoring. Real-time, continuous monitoring further enhances the outcomes of clinical trials.

Parexel Enhances the Effectiveness of Clinical Trial Management

Sanofi stated that wearable devices are a core component of its digital trial strategy. Sanofi chose to partner with Parexel to enhance the effectiveness of clinical trial management.

Although numerous clinical trials have begun piloting the use of sensors, their validity and accuracy have not yet been robustly demonstrated; the collaboration between Sanofi and Parexel is specifically exploring this area.

Sanofi and Parexel are leveraging their respective expertise in clinical operations, regulatory affairs, logistics, and technology to determine how wearable devices can optimize data collection and study performance, ultimately accelerating drug development.

Parexel President Xavier Flinois stated in a press release: “We believe that the use of wearable devices to collect data from trial participants represents a breakthrough in the digital transformation of the industry. In partnership with Sanofi, we are confident that we have a strong opportunity to streamline and automate data collection from multiple devices, remotely gather high-quality data, and generate meaningful results, while reducing the burden on patients and sites and lowering costs.”

Flinois stated at the time, “Given the constantly evolving regulatory and reimbursement standards in today’s healthcare market, there is a growing need to leverage alternative data sources in clinical trials. Wearable devices and sensors have the potential to transform Phase I–IV trials and observational studies. However, appropriate infrastructure and versatile, specialized equipment are required to generate valid data. Parexel’s solutions may break the industry standard of collecting data solely during on-site visits, enabling biopharmaceutical companies to more readily demonstrate safety and efficacy, while differentiating themselves through diverse approaches and other remote monitoring measures.”

Sanofi has also made other attempts with wearable devices. In a small-scale experiment, it used wearable devices to track the daily lives of allergy patients in an effort to identify points for interrupting exposure to allergens.

Sanofi Investments: Involvement in Numerous Digital Health Companies

In addition to partnerships, another channel through which Sanofi is positioning itself in digital innovation is venture capital, enabling it to penetrate the core of digital health enterprises.

Arterial Network has observed that pharmaceutical venture capital generally continues to prioritize biopharmaceuticals, aiming to identify the next blockbuster drug. However, Sanofi’s strategy is more diverse and bold, with significant investments in numerous digital therapeutics companies.

Company 1: Click Therapeutics

Sanofi invested in the digital prescription therapy company Click Therapeutics this July. Click Therapeutics raised a total of $17 million in financing, led by Sanofi Ventures.

Digital prescription therapy combines digital products such as apps, sensors, and smart devices with pharmaceuticals, and multiple products have already received FDA approval.

Currently, Click Therapeutics’ flagship product is Clickotine, a smoking cessation app. Clickotine is designed to help people quit smoking by digitally delivering cessation strategies, such as teaching controlled breathing exercises, enabling users to log their smoking habits and emotions, and sending motivational messages, among other features. The company stated in an email that the app has been adopted by more than 30 organizations, including insurance companies.

Bernard Davitian, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Sanofi Ventures, stated, “We have evaluated numerous companies in this field, and we believe that Click Therapeutics’ mobile patient engagement platform positions the company as a leader in the prescription digital therapeutics sector. Click’s platform enables the company to efficiently target multiple indications, and our investment aims to foster collaboration across various therapeutic areas. Sanofi Ventures is pleased to join Click in establishing new”PharmaceuticalsThe Journey of a Pillar.” With the completion of the financing, Davitian also joined Click’s board of directors.

Company 2: Curisium

Curisium’s blockchain-based platform facilitates patient-centric, innovative healthcare contracts. Leveraging cutting-edge blockchain and secure computation technologies, the Curisium platform enables payers, healthcare providers, and life sciences companies to efficiently and securely engage in patient-centric, value-based innovative contracts. Curisium aims to transform healthcare by disrupting existing frameworks and implementing value-based contracting at the individual patient level.

Peter Kim, Co-founder and CEO of Curisium, stated: “Payers, providers, and life sciences companies are increasingly entering into various forms of innovative contracts. However, costly logistical support, lack of trust, and difficulties in verifying patient-level outcomes hinder effective implementation today.”

Other Digital Partners

Alibaba Health

In 2016, Sanofi and Ali Health signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. The two parties will share high-quality resources in their respective fields, engage in multi-faceted strategic collaboration in the healthcare sector, and join forces to provide better pharmaceutical and health services to patients in China. They will explore an Online-to-Offline (O2O) model that integrates online and offline channels, combine their pharmaceutical, health, and technological resources, and establish a safe, professional, and convenient healthcare service network.

Currently, the key collaborative projects implemented by Sanofi and Ali Health primarily include the “Peace of Mind at Your Fingertips” safe medication use and disease management program, launched in late 2017. All of Sanofi China’s prescription drug products have been fully integrated into Ali Health’s third-party traceability platform, “Ma Shang Fang Xin.” Sanofi has become the first multinational pharmaceutical company to join the “Ma Shang Fang Xin” platform, integrating product traceability with health management services.

Exscientia

Exscientia is a renowned AI-driven drug discovery company that has established collaborations with pharmaceutical giants such as GSK and Sanofi. Sanofi announced an investment of €250 million to partner with Exscientia in the development of bispecific small-molecule drugs for diabetes. Exscientia will design so-called bispecific small-molecule therapeutics targeting metabolic disorders, including diabetes, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and obesity. Sanofi will provide support not only in compound synthesis but also assume full responsibility for preclinical and clinical development.

Currently, both parties have selected 45 metabolic disease targets and approximately 1,000 dual-target combinations. Exscientia claims to possess technology capable of filtering out undruggable molecules, with the aim of designing dual-target drugs with a molecular weight of less than 500. Previously, Exscientia collaborated with Japan’s Sumitomo Pharma to develop central nervous system bispecific drugs, and it is currently partnering with Evotec to develop immunotherapy drugs.

Summary

Sanofi’s path to digital transformation is clear: by leveraging two approaches—drug discovery and “drug plus”—the company not only develops new drugs efficiently but also maximizes the value of existing medications. From collaborating with to investing in digital health companies, Sanofi aims to improve patient outcomes. This strategy not only provides disease management tools for patients and physicians but also reduces overall healthcare costs.

It is worth noting that within the entire digital health ecosystem, new apps and innovations emerge every day. While some individuals may not yet be accustomed to these developments, Sanofi has already begun to assume the role of an integrator, particularly in its area of expertise—diabetes care. The company aims to deeply embed itself across all patient journey touchpoints while simultaneously integrating the upstream and downstream segments of the industry chain.

Source: VBData

Author: Yang Xue