Poste a pourvoir

Job one for Sanofi's next CEO will be to shore up revenues, a task that may be difficult since the board has taken major acquisitions off the table and all the products in the company's late-stage pipeline combined are unlikely to cover the €2 billion shortfall for 2015-16 that analysts expect after the API in Lantus insulin glargine goes off patent in February.

An unexpected slowdown in Lantus sales was one of the reasons Chairman Serge Weinberg gave for the board's unanimous decision to remove Christopher Viehbacher as CEO on Oct. 29. Viehbacher had held the position since Dec. 1, 2008...