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NEW YORK — The top executives at French drug giant Sanofi on Wednesday defended their decision to reduce earnings forecasts for 2024 in order to fund more research studies of new medicines they say could one day generate billions of dollars in annual sales.

CEO Paul Hudson and Houman Ashrafian, Sanofi’s new head of R&D, made their remarks in an exclusive interview with STAT ahead of a full-day meeting with analysts here. When the cuts to earnings were first announced Oct. 27, along with a plan to spin off the company’s consumer products division, shares dove 18% and have yet to fully recover. The share price is down 5% since the beginning of 2023.

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“I’ve been waiting four years for a situation where we could put [out] the pipeline, as impressive as it is, and declare that we’re going to be the world’s leading immunology company,” said Hudson, who took over as CEO in 2019. “So it’s quite an important moment for us. And it’s an important moment to declare that we’re back in science, because I could argue that we haven’t been where we needed to be.”

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