Sanofi joins hands with Cathay Innovation to access transformative innovation in healthcare technology

Juli 16, 2020
Weltweit

Shanghai, Paris – June 9, 2020 – Sanofi announced today a strategic investment in Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital fund created to support entrepreneurs engaged in the sustainable transformation of the world through innovation and technology.

Through this partnership, Sanofi will strengthen its connection to innovative global ecosystems in healthcare, particularly in China, which is the second largest market of the group and a strategic priority in terms of development and innovation.

“As a top priority country for Sanofi, China has impressed us with its dynamic market development and fast progress in digital innovations, demonstrating the potential of becoming a pioneer in digitalized economy,” said Olivier Charmeil, Executive Vice President, Head of General Medicines at Sanofi. “In this context, our strategic partnership with Cathay Innovation will help us access the latest innovations in healthcare technologies, and ultimately translate these into real benefits for the Chinese healthcare system, and people in China and around the world. This partnership marks an important milestone towards our ambition of becoming a leading innovation driver, and demonstrates our commitment to contributing to a strong economy of China.”

By leveraging diversified expertise and capabilities of different industries, Cathay Innovation built a unique platform where the disruptive start-ups and industry leaders such as Sanofi can find each other and combine their complementary strengths to create new transformative innovations for the society. Through Sanofi’s strong expertise in healthcare and through Cathay Innovation’s global platform, entrepreneurs will benefit from this compelling approach that bridges geographies and industries, to improve their innovations and accelerate their development.

“Passionate about improving lives of patients, we are pleased to collaborate with Cathay Innovation and leverage their experience in investment and entrepreneur selection. This strategic partnership will support us on our journey to become a key innovation driver in China, as well as offer us a new way to engage the dynamic innovation ecosystem of health tech start-ups in China,” said Pius S. Hornstein, PhD, General Manager General Medicines and Country Lead, Sanofi China. “When our deep expertise in healthcare meets their novel ideas, we are confident that we can bring more innovative and meaningful solutions which will transform healthcare and bring real benefits to people in China and across the globe.”

“Building on our strength of identifying visionary entrepreneurs that are inventing the fourth industrial revolution, we are convinced that we will develop a partnership of exceptional quality with Sanofi. We will work closely to leverage new emerging health trends by collaborating with the most promising start-ups in health sector,” said Mingpo Cai, Founder and President of Cathay Capital. “We are more than happy to provide Sanofi with the support of the entire Cathay Capital group to drive transformative innovations in the evolving healthcare ecosystem in China and globally.”

Sanofi has been active in incubation of promising healthcare solutions in the recent years. The Innovation Hub Sanofi established two years ago is now an important accelerator to help local start-ups bring innovative ideas into life.

By accelerating introduction of innovative medicines and vaccines and driving digital innovations, Sanofi is committed to making a real difference to the lives of the Chinese people.

About Sanofi China

Sanofi is a leading global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. In 1982, Sanofi opened an office in China as one of the first multinational corporations to support China’s opening up and reform. Sanofi China has a diversified business that ranges from pharmaceuticals and human vaccines to consumer healthcare. We have 12 offices, 4 R&D sites, 3 production sites and 1 digital innovation hub in China. Sanofi is committed to introducing innovative medicines and vaccines faster in China, and leading digital innovations to serve the broadest base of the Chinese people.

For more information, please visit www.sanofi.cn or subscribe to the Sanofi China official WeChat account: SanofiChina (赛诺菲中国) and LinkedIn account: Sanofi.

About Sanofi

Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from rare diseases and the millions with long-term chronic conditions.

With more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe.

Sanofi, Empowering Life

About Cathay Innovation

Cathay Innovation is a global venture capital partnership, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital. It was founded around the shared conviction that supporting innovation entrepreneurs by providing them with a platform bridging 3 continents – North America, Europe and China – constitutes a particularly powerful value-creation strategy. As a multi-stage fund, Cathay Innovation partners with visionary entrepreneurs, committed to the sustainable transformation of the world through innovation and technology. Such transformation is accelerated by leveraging Cathay Capital extensive network with corporates and solid experience in operational excellence. Cathay Innovation has offices in San Francisco, Paris, Beijing and Shanghai.

To learn more, please visit www.cathayinnovation.com or follow us on Twitter @Cathayinnov.

About Cathay Capital Group

Cathay Capital Group is a global investment platform specialized in cross-border development with a focus on Northern America, China, Europe and Africa. The group identifies investment opportunities with the potential to impact the world and accompanies portfolio companies in their international expansion through its ecosystem of partners and the local expertise of its close to 100 employees based in Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, New York, San Francisco, Munich, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Founded in 2007, the Group has completed over 140 buyouts, growth and venture capital investments and manages €3.5 billion in assets (as of 30/05/2019), distributed in a range of investment strategies and vehicles.

For more information, please visit www.cathay.fr and follow us on Twitter @CathayCapital and on LinkedIn Cathay Capital.ed to