Paris, France, June 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, leading to over 20 FDA and EMA first approvals and line extensions, including multiple breakthrough therapies across neuroscience, rare diseases, immunology and ophthalmology.
“I want to thank Dr. Houman Ashrafian for his contribution to our company over the last threeyears and I wish him all the best in his next chapter. I am delighted to welcome Paulo to the Executive Team. Paulo is a highlyrespected R&D leader with a strong track recordacross research, development,and innovation. His scientific expertise, development experience, and leadership of large-scale innovation organizations will be invaluable as we continue to advance our pipeline and shape the future of R&D at Sanofi,”said Belén Garijo, Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi.
“I am thrilled to join Sanofi at such an exciting moment,” said Paulo Fontoura. “In recent years, Sanofi has established a leadership position in immunology and built strong positions in several other areas of significant unmet medical need, while demonstrating a clear commitment to scientific innovation and AI-powered transformation. I am deeply honored to join the company at this important momentand help Sanofi to expand and transform its pipeline and grow its leadership role in biopharma, and I look forward to working with our talented teams to advance breakthrough medicines for patients around the world.”
Paulo holds an MD and PhD from the New University of Lisbon and completed postdoctoral training in neuroimmunology at Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
About Sanofi
Sanofi is an R&D driven, AI-powered biopharma company committed to improving people’s lives and delivering compelling growth. We apply our deep understanding of the immune system to invent medicines and vaccines that treat and protect millions of people around the world, with an innovative pipeline that could benefit millions more. Our team is guided by one purpose: we chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives; this inspires us to drive progress and deliver positive impact for our people and the communities we serve, by addressing the most urgent healthcare, environmental, and societal challenges of our time. Sanofi is listed on EURONEXT: SAN and NASDAQ: SNY
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