Sanofi's simplified brand opens a fresh chapter as new strategy, pandemic help turn the page

A day before announcing its 2021 earnings Friday, Sanofi dropped some unexpected news: It was swapping corporate logos and culling the Genzyme and Pasteur names as part of a unification push.

The corporate rebranding project started all the way back in the late summer of 2020, right in the dog days of the first pandemic wave, Christopher Williams, Sanofi's Head of Corporate Communications and Brand, said in an interview.​

“We originally focused on having a conversation with [Sanofi’s] leadership about a new purpose that unites the whole company," Williams said. "We have a history that is somewhat complex, given that we’ve had lots of mergers and acquisitions, and, as a result, we still had this branding architecture that included names like Genzyme and Pasteur.”