Olivier Charmeil, Executive Vice-President for General Medicines at France-based Sanofi S.A. (NASDAQ: SNY), visited China this week to launch KiDS (Kids & Diabetes in Schools), a program aimed at enhancing health literacy in school environments. Charmeil, who previously served as Sanofi’s China region head, also spoke to local media platform Yicai about the significance of such partnerships in what is Sanofi’s second most important global market after the United States.
The KiDS program, first launched globally by the International Diabetes Federation in 2013, supports children with diabetes or at risk of developing the condition by providing education to combat disease-related stigma in schools and promoting healthy lifestyles. The program’s launch in China is a collaboration with the Shanghai Soon Ching Ling Foundation. Charmeil highlighted the program’s ambition, stating: “The program has reached over 300,000 kids around the world, and in China, the objective is to directly influence 100,000 kids.”
Charmeil emphasized that Sanofi views local partnerships as part of a long-term strategy for the market, saying: “We are not looking at the next 12 or 24 months. We look strategically at the next 15 to 20 years.” R&D related partnerships are also a priority for Sanofi, which aims to “bring our global compounds to China, our innovation,” but also to leverage its local presence to develop “‘in China for China’ therapeutic solutions that are well customized to the market and that can bring a lot of value to the Chinese patient.”- Flcube.com
