Update: European Commission Accepts Sanofi's Offer to Address Potential Anticompetitive Disparagement of Competing Flu Vaccine

06:00 AM EDT, 10/14/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with the Sanofi statement in the last two paragraphs.) The European Commission has resolved an antitrust investigation into Sanofi's (SNY) potential anticompetitive conduct in the enhanced flu vaccine market by making "legally binding" the commitments that the French pharmaceutical giant offered to the regulator, it said Wednesday. The move follows the EC's preliminary competition concerns about Sanofi's alleged disparagement campaigns in Germany and France of fluad, the only enhanced flu vaccine competing with Sanofi's efluelda, according to the regulatory statement. Sanofi has agreed that it will not use statements in its promotional materials in Germany and France that "criticise, cast doubt upon or contradict national vaccination recommendations" until March 2030. It also will not "highlight negatively fluad or unduly suggest that Sanofi's vaccine efluelda is safer or more effective" over the same period. Further, Sanofi has agreed not to "suggest or imply that the evidence base supporting fluad is weaker than the one supporting effluelda" over the same timeline. Sanofi will keep a statement published on its German and French websites for 24 months, acknowledging and clarifying that the applicable national vaccination recommendations treat fluad and efluelda as "equivalent in protecting elderly people against the flu," the EC statement said. The European Commission closed its investigation into Sanofi's communications in France and Germany regarding efluelda, its high-dose flu vaccine, "without finding any infringement," a Sanofi spokesperson said. "Sanofi cooperated fully with the Commission throughout the investigation and has made commitments to clarify and safeguard its communications on this vaccine," the spokesperson said.