French drugmaker Sanofi made lots of news in 2021.
Here are 10 developments to know from the last 12 months:
1. Sanofi completed two of the 10 biggest pharmaceutical acquisitions in 2021: It acquired clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company Translate Bio for about $3.2 billion and drugmaker Kadmon for $1.9 billion.
2. The company said it will stop offering safety net hospitals 340B drug-pricing program discounts on drugs dispensed at contract pharmacies if the hospitals fail to turn over patient claims data for those pharmacies to the drugmaker.
3. Among the 10 largest drugmakers, Sanofi was one of seven that spent more money on selling and marketing existing drugs than on research and development for new drugs in 2020, according to an analysis published Oct. 27 by America's Health Insurance Plans.
4. Sanofi stopped development of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, deciding it didn't make sense to continue development in a crowded market, The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 28.
5. Sanofi is among the 14 leading drugmakers that spent billions of dollars more on stock buybacks and dividends than on research and development, according to a report released July 8 by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
6. The World Health Organization on July 6 recommended Sanofi's sarilumab as part of a cocktail of two anti-inflammatory antibodies to treat patients with severe COVID-19.
7. The drugmaker announced June 29 that it will invest about $476 million each year in its new mRNA Center of Excellence. It will employ 400 people and operate at Sanofi's sites in Cambridge, Mass., and Lyon, France.
8. Sanofi was ranked by Forbes as the eighth-largest public healthcare company in the world.
9. The company announced April 7 that it would form a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to essential medicines for patients in 40 low-income countries.
10. Sanofi said Jan. 27 that it agreed to manufacture more than 125 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to help support the vaccine supply chain.