Sanofi wins CHi Transaction of the Year Award

Oliver Freichel, vice president business development and strategy at Sanofi Consumer Healthcare (pictured centre right) and Markus Weiss, head of global BD&L C&C, allergy / Rx-to-OTC switches at Sanofi Consumer Healthcare (centre left) were presented with the CHi Award by Deborah Wilkes of OTCToolbox (right) and Andy Tisman of IQVIA Consumer Health (left)

3 March 2020 - Deborah Wilkes

Sanofi Consumer Healthcare’s deal for exclusive OTC rights to Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir) in the US has won the OTCToolbox Consumer Healthcare Industry (CHi) Award for Transaction of the Year.

Judges for the CHi Award were looking for a transaction in 2019 with the power to transform a company’s consumer healthcare presence. Six of the eight judges ranked the Tamiflu deal first or second out of eight candidates.

A transaction with “huge potential” was how Chris Bunniss of Bunniss Associates described the deal. Noting that the transaction was “strategically very strong”, Bunniss praised Sanofi for “extracting a game changing switch from a prescription player”.

Pierre-Antoine Bodin of Roland Berger commented that the deal was “quite a bold move” to create a new consumer healthcare category that had traditionally been prescription.

A third judge remarked that the transaction “could bring a new paradigm to the flu market, leading to market growth and driving growth for Sanofi”.

Sanofi announced in July 2019 that it had gained exclusive OTC rights to Roche’s Tamiflu for prevention and treatment of flu in the US (click here to read the News story).

The best in business development

The OTCToolbox CHi Awards honour the best in business development and innovation around the world.

Winners of the CHi Awards were decided by a panel of highly-experienced executives in the consumer healthcare field. The panel for the three CHi Awards included representatives from Bannert Manlik Consultants, Bunniss Associates, Ceuta International, Euromonitor International, Healthy Brands, IQVIA Consumer Health, Infirst Healthcare, Jenson R+, Plexus Ventures and Roland Berger, as well as OTCToolbox.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE WINNERS BOOK FOR THE CHI AWARDS.

Transaction of the Year was one of three CHi Awards presented during the OTCToolbox 2020 Consumer Healthcare BD&I Event held in London, UK, on 27-28 February 2020. The other two CHi Awards were Business Development Team of the Year (click here to read the News story) and Innovation of the Year (click here to read the News story).