Sanofi appoints David Meeker as chief executive officer of Genzyme, a Sanofi company, effective November 1, 2011.  He will report to Christopher A Viehbacher, chief executive officer of Sanofi, and will join the Group Management Committee.  Christopher A Viehbacher will retain the position of chairman, Genzyme.

“After working closely with David over the past six months, I am confident that he is the best person to lead Genzyme”, said Christopher A. Viehbacher, chief executive officer of Sanofi. “David’s commitment to employees, physicians and patients has been a key success factor in the successful integration of Genzyme as part of the Sanofi Group.  His combination of medical and business experience will be essential to move Genzyme’s broad portfolio of products forward and deliver much-needed therapies to patients.”

Under David Meeker’s leadership, Genzyme will incorporate the rare disease business and the multiple sclerosis franchise.  Previous Genzyme divisions - renal, biosurgery and oncology - have been integrated within the existing Sanofi portfolio giving them greater global scale and capabilities.

David joined Genzyme in 1994 as medical director to work on the cystic fibrosis gene therapy programme.  Over the years he has held key positions of increasing responsibility as he led the development of treatments in the current rare disease portfolio.