It’s been a busy few months for Servier, which followed its $2.5 billion acquisition of cancer biotech Day One Biopharmaceuticals with a $1.5 billion agreement to buy the neuromuscular business of Edgewise Therapeutics. While it may look like a flurry of dealmaking, Global Head of Business Development Frederic Scaerou says it’s important to take the longer view — and as a privately held company, Servier does.
Servier is governed by a non-profit foundation, a structure that means the company does not answer to investors or shareholders. At public companies and even some private ones, the focus is on the next year to three years, said Scaerou, whose experience spans both nonprofit organizations and publicly traded entities. Servier has a 10-year roadmap for building out its pipeline.
“The future we want to write for the company is ideally a few flagship products addressing a high unmet need, well-defined patient population,” Scaerou said in an interview during the BIO International Convention in San Diego. “The blockbuster potential of the asset is not what we’re looking for. It’s more the patient impact and how we can position Servier as a mid-size [company] in this very high unmet need.”
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Servier was founded in 1954 as a family-owned business focused on cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. The Suresnes, France-based company grew globally, covering Europe and reaching Asia and Latin America. But in this phase of the company, Servier products were not available in the U.S. In 2004, Servier transitioned to foundation ownership. Changes to the company’s therapeutic and geographic strategy followed. Servier entered oncology through a 2015 deal with Taiho Pharmaceutical, securing some rights for a drug that would go on to become Lonsurf, an oral chemotherapy for colorectal and gastric cancers. Taiho retained rights to Lonsurf in the U.S., but Servier commercialized it in Europe and certain other countries. In 2018, Servier acquired Shire’s oncology business for $2.4 billion, a deal that gave the French company its first U.S. presence. Servier’s main U.S. operations are in Boston.
In 2021, Servier added targeted cancer therapies by buying the oncology business of Agios for $1.8 billion. One of the drugs from that deal, Voranigo, went on to receive regulatory approval for two types of low grade gliomas in adults. Two years ago, Servier decided it would add rare neurological disorders as a therapeutic area of focus, Scaerou said. Ojemda, the main asset from Day One, is approved for pediatric low-grade glioma, making that small molecule complementary to Voranigo. The two brain cancer drugs may not represent large markets, but Scaerou said they don’t have to. In addition to opportunity to reach diseases with limited treatment options, a rare neuro focus also gives Servier a way to stand apart from other companies.
Servier has some earlier-stage neuro programs from internal R&D. Scaerou said the Edgewise deal complements those assets with sevasemten, which is in Phase 3 clinical development for Becker muscular dystrophies — a rare neuromuscular disease with no FDA-approved treatment —and in Phase 2 testing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which has few available treatments. This deal is about more than the lead drug, as Edgewise’s neuromuscular business brings people and expertise, Scaerou said. If sevasemten produces positive Phase 3 data, the Edgewise business can serve as a foundation for Servier to further build out its neuro strategy with more drugs in various stages of development.
“We are not looking for blockbusters, we’re looking for innovative science,” Scaerou said.
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Despite being privately held, Servier does disclose some financial information. For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2025, the company reported €6.9 billion (about $8 billion) in revenue. Oncology is its biggest therapeutic area accounting for €2.2 billion (about $2.5 billion) in revenue for the fiscal year. While Ojemda will further bolster oncology sales, Day One also brings Servier a cancer drug pipeline comprised of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) in development for rare or high unmet need cancers. These drugs could complement early-stage assets in the Servier pipeline in development for various types of solid tumors, Scaerou said. In addition, Servier has antibody expertise from its 2020 acquisition of Symphogen.
Compared to many drugmakers, Servier’s business moves are less driven by patent cliff urgency. The most significant Servier product facing a loss of exclusivity is Tibsovo, a drug from the Agios acquisition with approvals in leukemias and cholangiocarcinoma. Tibsovo’s patents expire in 2034, giving Servier time to prepare. Scaerou said the company aims to have a sustained cadence of business deals to build the pipeline before other Servier drugs face patent expiry.
“What is different is that we will never have a massive pipeline,” Scaerou said. “All the bets we’re placing, we’re trying to make sure they are the best one and we invest all the resources we can on improving the probability of success of this bet.”
Photo by Servier