Sanofi has appointed Belén Garijo, currently Chair and CEO of Merck KGaA, as CEO, effective April 29, 2026. She will succeed Paul Hudson, the company’s current CEO, who will remain CEO until February 17, 2026. Olivier Charmeil, currently Executive Vice President, General Medicines, and member of the company’s Executive Committee since 2011, will assume the role of interim CEO during this transition. 

Hudson will be leaving Sanofi following a six-year tenure as CEO. He became CEO in September 2019. Previously,he was CEO of Novartis Pharmaceuticals from 2016 to 2019, and prior to that, held several increasingly senior positions and served as President of AstraZeneca US and Executive Vice President, North America.  

Garijo is taking the helm of Sanofi with a “priority…to strengthen the productivity, governance, and innovation capacity of Research & Development,” said Sanofi, in a February 12, 2026, statement. She is returning to Sanofi, where she served for 15 years in leadership roles, including as Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations for Europe and Canada and a member of Sanofi’s Executive Committee. She became Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, in May 2021, becoming the first woman to lead a DAX40 company in Germany; DAX40 is the stock market index consisting of the 40 major German blue-chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. She joined the company’s Group´s Healthcare business sector in 2011 and became Healthcare’s President and CEO in 2015. Merck KGaA is comprised of three main business: bio/pharmaceuticals/healthcare; life-sciences services and products; and electronic chemicals.  

Source: Sanofi