French drugmaker Sanofi has been playing the long game when it comes to the blockbuster Dupixent, and the results are starting to show. First approved for atopic dermatitis in 2017, the skin and asthma immunology medicine that inhibits interleukin 4 and interleukin 13 brought in record sales in the second quarter this year and has some big potential approvals on the horizon.
Pharma intelligence analysts point to Dupixent as one of the “big drugs for big diseases” that could dominate the market by 2030 along with GLP-1 weight loss medications, oncology mainstays and other immunology drugs like AbbVie’s Skyrizi. Due to Dupixent’s “pipeline in a product” approach, the treatment could reach more than $22 billion in sales by the end of the decade, according to Evaluate.
In the second quarter this year, sales of Dupixent rose to a record $3.6 billion, an increase of more than 29% year over year, Sanofi reported in its quarterly earnings.
In addition to atopic dermatitis, Dupixent has racked up approvals in asthma and eczema, as well as other skin conditions and infections. This month, Sanofi and development partner Regeneron picked up a European green light for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the third-leading cause of death worldwide, according to Brian Foard, Sanofi’s head of specialty care, during an earnings call last week. The company is awaiting U.S. approval for COPD by the end of September, and Foard said a history in asthma has given Sanofi the experience to find and treat patients quickly in 2025.
Dupixent’s success has a lot to do with patient demand, Foard said.
“It's heavily demand-driven right now from a patient standpoint,” Foard said. “We're in a great position where we're seeing expansion not only in our core indications that we've been launched in but also in those core indications across geographies everywhere as we've launched into those new occasions around the world.”
The race to bring new treatment options and a biologic to the COPD space has also intensified in recent years, and an FDA OK in September could make Dupixent the first across the finish line.
Beyond Dupixent, Sanofi has built itself into a growing immunology powerhouse that analysts have called “underappreciated.”
Sanofi is now guiding for Dupixent to reach about €13 billion ($14 billion) this year, and is looking at even greater returns in 2025 as the COPD engines begin churning and the drug rises in the ranks of Big Pharma blockbusters.
