(3BL Media) March 12, 2012 - Access to healthcare is one of the major challenges facing our world. Sanofi Canada is dedicated to helping facilitate access to quality medicines that benefit patients including the world’s most vulnerable populations, often in areas with pressing social needs. This is why Sanofi Canada and its Canadian sister company Sanofi Pasteur are one of the founding partners of Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC).

HPIC is a not-for-profit relief and development organization that works through partnerships to increase access to medicine and improve health in the developing world. It provides critical emergency medical aid for men, women and children who have been weakened by hunger and are living in refugee camps with no water, no sanitation and limited access to food.

Every year, Sanofi Canada provides medications for the HPIC Physician Travel Pack program. In response to the Horn of Africa drought crisis in 2011, HPIC worked with its partners to provide 50 Physician Travel Packs to Women and Health Alliance (WAHA) International. The shipment contained in-date, high-quality essential medicines for up to 30,000 treatments, allowing delivery of urgently needed healthcare to people living in camps in Mogadishu, the largest city in Somalia.

Sanofi Canada also participated in HPIC’s government of Canada-sponsored project in Afghanistan by donating 2,700 vials of an injectable antibiotic to the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital. In addition, donations to children in earthquake-ravished Haiti were essential in rehydrating this vulnerable population.

For more information about Health Partners International of Canada, visit: http://www.hpicanada.ca

About Sanofi
Sanofi, a global and diversified healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients’ needs. Sanofi has core strengths in the field of healthcare with seven growth platforms: diabetes solutions, human vaccines, innovative drugs, rare diseases, consumer healthcare, emerging markets and animal health. Sanofi is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY).

Sanofi companies in Canada include sanofi-aventis Canada Inc. (pharmaceuticals), Sanofi Pasteur (vaccines), Sanofi Consumer Health (health and beauty), Genzyme (rare diseases) and Merial (animal health). Together they employ more than 1,700 people, mainly in the greater Montreal and Toronto areas. In 2010 Sanofi companies invested $159.2 million in R&D in Canada, creating jobs, business and opportunity throughout the country.