Ipsen, David Loew
Sanofi loses the CEO of its vaccine divisions to fellow French pharmaceutical company, Ipsen. David Loew will leave his current position as head of Sanofi Pasteur and join Ipsen as CEO on July 1.
Sanofi loses its vaccines head at an inopportune moment, given the company is currently working on expanding its vaccines business and developing multiple vaccines against COVID-19.
Last week, Sanofi announced that it would be investing €610m ($685m) across its vaccine business to build a vaccine production site and an R&D center.
The company also arranged partnerships with GSK and Translate Bio to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
Loew has been head of Sanofi Pasteur for the last four years, during which time he managed the fallout from the launch of Dengvaxia, a vaccine against dengue fever that was subsequently shown to be potentially harmful to those without pre-exposure to the virus.
He joins Ipsen as CEO after seven years at Sanofi and also a decade of experience at Roche.
“Loew is a seasoned leader with extensive worldwide experience in business areas of key importance to Ipsen,” said Marc De Garidel, chairman of Ipsen.
Whilst at Sanofi, Loew managed the European region and, during his time at Roche, worked as a country head in Mexico, with additional experience in Austria, France, the US, and Switzerland.
Aymeric Le Chatelier, who will continue his position as acting CEO at Ipsen until Loew’s arrival, will step back to his former role as chief financial officer at the beginning of July.