Sanofi's U.S. sales team gets its close-up--and a promised makeover

Sanofi's U.S. diabetes sales team is under a worldwide spotlight--and not because it's time to take a bow. It was bad enough that Sanofi ($SNY) announced poor expectations for 2015 sales as part of its earnings report last week. But then, now-ex-CEO Chris Viehbacher suggested that U.S. sales of Lantus, the French drugmaker's diabetes powerhouse, were to blame for the expected shortfall.

Chairman Serge Weinberg wasn't as coy: On a call with analysts, he said "local management" in the U.S. weren't doing their jobs. Sales managers in particular. "It appears that our sales force management on Lantus in the U.S. could have been better," Weinberg said. "[C]learly we have not been as good as we should have in managing this sales force in this market."

Weinberg said at the time that Sanofi has already started fixing those problems. He wasn't too specific about how. But Sanofi's U.S. operations tell FiercePharmaMarketing that the group has new leadership--and a potentially new approach. Read more at FiercePharmaMarketing >>