Sanofi Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Research Frank Nestle, M.D., is leaving the company.
The news was relayed to staff by R&D chief Houman Ashrafian, Ph.D., and confirmed by a Sanofi spokesperson in a statement provided to Fierce Biotech this morning. Nestle’s departure is the most senior exit to be disclosed since the French pharma began a global overhaul of R&D last month.
“Over the past eight years, Frank has shown outstanding leadership and a strong commitment to advancing new medicines on behalf of patients,” Ashrafian said in a May 8 statement to Fierce. “He has played a key role in building a best-in-class research organization at Sanofi and has been a relentless supporter of our Play to Win cultural shift. We are enormously grateful to Frank for his contributions to the R&D organization.”
A significant strategic shift at Sanofi has seen the company wring out much of its early-stage oncology work, axing collaborations along the way. A deal with IGM Biosciences was the most recent to be cut, with Sanofi electing to prioritize three antibodies targeting immunology and inflammation (I&I) targets and ditching three for oncology. Sanofi previously disclosed the divestment of a Bay Area site acquired in the $1 billion purchase of Amunix in December 2021 and the end of immuno-oncology work stemming from the purchase of cell therapy biotech Kiadis.
Sanofi also cut researchers associated with the acquisition of Belgian biotech Ablynx, purchased for 3.9 billion euros in 2018.
The pivot away from oncology was teased as far back as November 2023, when CEO Paul Hudson previewed a doubling-down in immunology research. That aspiration makes Nestle’s leaving all the more notable, given he has been a pillar of Sanofi’s immunology work to date.
Nestle joined Sanofi in September 2016 as the global head of the immunology therapeutic research area and chief scientific officer for North America. Four years later, he was promoted to global research head and chief scientific officer for the whole company.
An immunologist by training and a professor at King’s College of London for 12 years, Nestle was a Senior Investigator Emeritus for 16 years at the U.K.’s National Institute of Health and Care Research, the equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
From April 2021 to October 2022, Nestle chaired the board of the now-defunct Kiadis.