Sanofi has entered into a global agreement with Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (Medco), and United BioSource Corporation (UBC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Medco, to better leverage the real-world evidence generated during product development and throughout the product lifecycle in order to improve the overall quality of patient care.

Medco and UBC hold a unique set of complementary capabilities in the areas of real-world evidence generation, personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics; research, safety and comparative effectiveness analytics; and clinical and adherence support.

Under the terms of this multi-year agreement, Medco and UBC will provide real-world input and comparative data into product development strategy.  This agreement will allow Sanofi to define the relative value for products early in development, by more precisely identifying patient populations in which drugs are most effective. It will also enable Sanofi to maximize the full value potential of R&D innovation through early alignment of patient population assessments, payer and medical needs. The objective is to develop integrated solutions for patients by implementing novel care models and to improve adherence and patient outcomes.

“Medco and UBC offer a robust capability to help us close the gap between fundamental research and real world clinical setting and bring the transformative change to the drug development process required to improve the quality of patient care, while effectively meeting payer and other stakeholder evidence requirements,” said Jean-Pierre Lehner, chief medical officer of Sanofi. “Through this agreement, we will make the leap from discovering and marketing new medicines to providing comprehensive healthcare solutions that are proven to drive safety, effectiveness and value for our stakeholders.”

“Some products, that seemed to hold promise in early research, might not deliver the intended results when used in real-world practice”, said Dr Rob Epstein, Medco president advanced clinical science and research and chief clinical research and development officer.  “In the framework of this agreement real-world data will be used to develop products that demonstrate value in real-world settings, enabling Sanofi to support high quality, cost effective care,”

Medco Health Solutions, Inc. is pioneering the world's most advanced pharmacy and its clinical research and innovations are part of Medco making medicine smarter for approximately 65 million members.

United BioSource Corporation (UBC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Medco Health Solutions, Inc., is a global scientific and medical affairs organization that partners with life science companies to make medicine and medical products smarter for all stakeholders in the health care landscape.

Sanofi, a global and diversified healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients’ needs.