Within the past two weeks, Sanofi has faced two significant competition law developments regarding (alleged or already established) disparagement practices.

Dawn Raid for Alleged Disparagement of Competing Seasonal Flu Vaccines

On 29 September 2025, the European Commission (Commission) started unannounced inspections at Sanofi’s premises in France and Germany to investigate possible disparagement practices aimed at excluding competitors of its seasonal flu vaccines.

The dawn raid marks a new chapter in the Commission’s pursuit of disparaging  behaviour by firms in a dominant position following its recent decisions in the Vifor case (see Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights, 22 July 2024) and the Teva case (see Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights, 31 October 2024). Sanofi is not new to investigations of its advertisement campaigns and communications with HCPs, as it has already been fined before for similar behaviour in France (see below).

Award of Damages in Plavix® Disparagement Case

On 24 September 2025, the Court of Appeal of Paris (CAP) ordered Sanofi to pay €150.7 million in damages to the French national health insurance fund (Caisse nationale d’assurance maladie, CNAM).

The follow-on damages action stems from the 2013 decision of the French Competition Authority (FCA), which had found that Sanofi abused its dominant position by denigrating generic versions of its blockbuster medicine Plavix® (clopidogrel), an antiplatelet medicine used to prevent blood clots. In that decision, the FCA had already imposed an administrative fine of €40.6 million on Sanofi for disseminating misleading messages to healthcare professionals that cast unwarranted doubt on the safety and efficacy of clopidogrel generics.

CNAM sought compensation for the additional costs which it incurred due to the slower uptake of generic clopidogrel, which it argued was the result of Sanofi’s abusive conduct. While CNAM’s action had initially been declared time-barred by the court of first instance, the CAP overturned this ruling – a conclusion later upheld by the French Supreme Court in 2023 (see Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights, 13 October 2023). The case then returned to the CAP, which ruled on the merits of the case.

The CAP analysed the concrete effects of Sanofi’s disparagement strategy and held that it significantly slowed the uptake of generic versions of clopidogrel. While the FCA had found that Sanofi’s conduct lasted only around five months in 2009–2010, the CAP concluded that its harmful effects persisted until 2021 – a period of 11 years. It therefore granted CNAM damages for:

• Higher reimbursement costs – CNAM reimbursed clopidogrel at higher prices because of the delayed market entry of generics.
• Higher pharmacist bonuses – Under a 2012 CNAM remuneration scheme, pharmacies received bonuses tied to increases in substitution rates. Since substitution of clopidogrel was artificially low in 2011 due to Sanofi’s conduct, the subsequent sharp increase in 2012 triggered disproportionately high bonuses for that year, inflating CNAM’s costs. In subsequent years, CNAM also paid higher bonuses than would have been the case under normal competitive conditions.

Additionally, the CAP also awarded financial damages to account for the time elapsed since the harm occurred (calculated for each of the two above categories of damage, based on the applicable interest rate).

Takeaways

These developments are a reminder that anticompetitive disparagement practices can trigger not only immediate enforcement actions, but also protracted legal and financial consequences.  The €40.6 million fine imposed by the FCA in 2013 (considered very large at the time) has now been dwarfed by the new €150.7 million damages judgment payable to the French national insurance fund. Looking ahead, the Commission’s new investigation in the seasonal flu vaccines market signals that Sanofi may again face a long and resource-intensive process, and if the Commission establishes an additional infringement, the possibility of further fines and damage claims.