Sanofi has officially inaugurated its upgraded Shanghai R&D Innovation Centre, positioning it as the company's largest translational medicine research centre in China, focused on immunology, chronic disease, oncology, and rare disease. On the same day, the company signed an agreement with Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital to build Sanofi's fourth global Translational Centre of Excellence and its first in the Asia-Pacific region, following three European sites in France, Germany and Spain.

The dual move is designed to pull Chinese scientific discoveries and clinical insights earlier into global drug development, with the centre leveraging Shanghai's research ecosystem to connect disease-mechanism studies with clinical needs.

Under the Huashan partnership, Sanofi will conduct early exploratory research in China, including biobank samples, real-world data, and patient insights relevant to Chinese populations, to inform differentiated R&D, while also linking the company to top-tier academic institutions and emerging projects. The collaboration spans translational research, clinical studies, technology-platform access, commercial opportunities and talent development, and signals Sanofi's intent to embed China in its global R&D network rather than treat it solely as a market.