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Sanofi appoints Paulo Fontoura as Global Head of R&D
Sanofi appoints Paulo Fontoura as Global Head of
About this update from Sanofi Sa
Sanofi appoints Paulo Fontoura as Global Head of R&DParis, June 22, 2026. Sanofi today announced the appointment of Paulo Fontoura, MD, PhD, FAAN, as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research & Development Pharma, effective September 1, 2026. He will be a member of Sanofi's Executive Committee, based in Paris, and will report to Chief Executive Officer Belén Garijo. As head of R&D Pharma, Paulo will lead Sanofi's end-to-end innovation engine, spanning research, translational medicine, clinical development, and regulatory affairs, with responsibility for advancing a differentiated pipeline and accelerating the delivery of transformative medicines to patients. Paulo succeeds Dr. Houman Ashrafian, who has decided to pursue an opportunity outside the company. With more than 25 years of experience spanning academic medicine, translational science, clinical development, and pharmaceutical innovation, Paulo joins Sanofi at an important moment as the company continues to advance its R&D transformation and progress a pipeline of new medicines across multiple therapeutic areas. A board-certified neurologist and physician-scientist, Paulo has played a leading role in the development of significant medicines across neuroscience, immunology, rare diseases, ophthalmology, and infectious diseases. Most recently, he served as Chief Medical Officer of Xaira Therapeutics, an AI-native biotechnology company focused on transforming drug discovery and development through generative artificial intelligence. Prior to Xaira, he spent more than 15 years at Roche, where he held a series of senior leadership positions culminating as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Clinical Development for Neuroscience, Immunology, Ophthalmology, Infectious and Rare Diseases. During his tenure at Roche, he oversaw a global organization of physicians and clinical scientists and was accountable for managing a broad late-stage portfolio across multiple therapeutic areas. Over the years, his teams contributed to the development of over 60 new molecular entities, across several therapeutic modalities, leadi...