Paulo Fontoura

Paulo Fontoura leads Sanofi’s end-to-end innovation engine – spanning research, translational medicine, clinical development, medical and regulatory affairs – with responsibility for advancing its differentiated pipeline and accelerating the delivery of transformative medicines to patients. His strategic leadership in building and advancing the company’s pipeline is central to driving Sanofi’s next phase of growth and creating long-term, sustainable value. 
 
Paulo joined Sanofi from Xaira Therapeutics, an AI-native drug discovery and development company, where he was the founding Chief Medical Officer. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Neuroscience, Immunology, Ophthalmology, Infectious and Rare Diseases at Roche, managing a broad, late-stage portfolio across multiple therapeutic areas. 
 
Paulo is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and also an adjunct professor at the New University of Lisbon Medical School in Lisbon, Portugal and a lecturer at the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine in Basel, Switzerland. Paulo has authored more than 85 research publications in top tier publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Lancet Neurology and Science, and holds several patents.
 
Paulo received his MD and PhD from the New University of Lisbon and completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University School of Medicine.
 
Paulo loves traveling and discovering new places with his wife and 2 children, now in their twenties. In his spare time, he enjoys art and music, and reads extensively across a wide range of subjects, from history to politics, literature and science fiction.