Sanofi is bestowing $625 million on its investment arm Sanofi Ventures, seeking to take advantage of a biotech landscape that is light on capital yet still heavy on scientific innovation.
The cash infusion brings the total value of Sanofi Ventures’ assets to more than $1.4 billion, the French pharma giant announced in a Sept. 24 release.
The funds will be used to support biotechs conducting innovative science in Sanofi’s core areas of immunology, rare disease, neurology and vaccines, Jason Hafler, Ph.D., managing director of Sanofi Ventures, told Fierce Biotech in an interview. But some of the funds will also go towards building Sanofi’s portfolio in what could become the core areas of tomorrow, he added.
“Skate to where the puck is going, not where it is,” Hafler said, quoting hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. Whether it be longevity, neuropsychiatry or pain, Sanofi wants to invest in areas that are important to patients even if they are “maybe not the footprint we have today, but we think could be the footprint in five, 10, 20 years.”
As examples, Hafler pointed to Sanofi Ventures’ recent dips into ophthalmology with Fierce 15 honoree Character Biosciences and Spanish gene therapy outfit SpliceBio, neuropsychiatry with Welsh startup Draig Therapeutics and pain with Latigo Biotherapeutics.
As to considering geography or development stage when deciding where to invest, Sanofi Ventures is agnostic, Hafler explained.
“The U.S. has been a big part of where innovation resides, but we’re not geographically constrained,” he said. Likewise, when it comes to the maturity of a biotech’s pipeline, “we're not constrained by only doing early or only doing late.”
Sanofi Ventures launched in 2012, with Hafler coming aboard in 2014. The fund has funneled over $800 million into more than 70 biotech and digital health companies since its founding, according to the release, with its returns used to fund ever-further investments in an evergreen model.
“Every dollar that we return, we get to reinvest, which I think is an important differentiator for us,” Hafler said. He sees Sanofi’s new $625 million commitment as affirmation that the venture arm has been using its parent company’s cash wisely. Three of Sanofi Ventures’ portfolio companies were sold last year: Aliada Therapeutics to AbbVie, Escient Pharmaceuticals to Incyte and Icosavax to AstraZeneca.
“All of those dollars that came back,” Hafler said, “we get to reinvest into the next generation of innovation.”
“With a proven track record of strategic wins and successful exits, Sanofi Ventures has become a powerful engine for scientific progress and strategic growth,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in the release. “By strengthening our investment capabilities, we are accelerating our ability to bring next-generation therapies that improve people’s lives while building valuable partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem.”
Hafler highlighted that Sanofi’s new investment comes as the fundraising market is struggling. A July 29 report from Silicon Valley Bank found that healthcare fundraising was on track for its worst year in a decade, with the analysts estimating a total haul of $9 billion for 2025 compared to $23 billion last year.
“We can take the longer-term view of these cycles that come and go,” Hafler said. “It’s right now very hard to fundraise, and we think there’s still great science that we want to support.”
Sanofi last pumped cash into its venture operation in 2023 with a $750 million investment. While propping up its venture arm, the French pharma has recently joined a chorus of its peers in rethinking R&D investments in the U.K.