Team size: Three

What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

In May 2025, Sanofi successfully launched Menquadfi vaccine (a quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine) in Vietnam. The vaccine represents a significant advancement in preventing meningococcal disease, which is a rare but potentially deadly bacterial infection. It is particularly beneficial for children under 2 years and adults ≥56 years in a country where meningitis remains a serious public health concern.

For our legal team, we’re very proud that several months of hard work spent in preparation for the launch resulted in an outstandingly meaningful outcome. Our work involved regulatory registrations, import permits and licenses, quality control processes, manufacturing compliance, labelling and packaging, pharmacovigilance plan, and numerous discussions, advices relating to commercial strategies and distribution structures.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

There are many key dimensions of organisational resilience, here I’ll focus on the strategic and operational perspectives. Our legal department is no longer just a gatekeeper – we’re becoming more of a strategic business partner and adopting a collaborative approach. With Sanofi’s aims to become the first biopharma company powered by AI at scale, my team’s priorities and focuses in 2025 include:

AI & legal tech adoption: we aim to match the pace of AI-driven in all our business units. We invest in legal tech training and tools as that is now a strategic imperative.

Data literacy & multidisciplinary team: we train ourselves to be more fluent in data analytics and intensify our collaboration with non-legal experts such as project managers and data scientists within the organisation to learn from them.

Client experience focus: we understand that legal services are being evaluated on responsiveness and ease of access, not just legal accuracy. Consequently, our KPIs are based on response time, risk management quality and case management skills, as well as our strategic thinking skills.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

In the pharmaceutical industry, generative AI and machine learning are revolutionising R&D, clinical trials, and patient engagement. As generative AI becomes more embedded in business functions, in-house lawyers are expected to evolve their skill sets to remain effective strategic partners. The ability to incorporate technology and software into our daily work, for instance, has become a basic necessity. We’re also expected to focus on topics such as designing AI governance frameworks or advising on cross-border data flows, consent management, and AI-specific privacy risks. More broadly, nearly 45% of global pharma CEOs are unsure their current business models will be viable in tenyears. Key areas such as R&D engines, patient engagement, core markets, therapeutic areas and revenue streams will probably see dramatic changes. In-house legal teams must therefore be prepared to support that transformation.

What have you done to further diversity objectives in your organisation?

I’d like to mention age diversity since I’m a member of a Sanofi Global Employee Resource Group called Generations+. In Vietnam, the median age of the workforce is approximately 32.5 years while in EU that number is 43. The young and dynamic labor force is a key driver of Vietnam’s economic growth. However, in certain fields such as legal or pharmaceutical, a young workforce could mean a lack of deep industry knowledge or decision-making experience.

Strategic thinking, risk assessment, and complex problem-solving skills – which are critical skills for senior legal professionals– can be strengthened by having an age-diverse workforce. Age diversity contributes to innovation, customer understanding, as well as broader skill sets and perspectives, strong mentorship and knowledge transfer. Acting as Global Communications Lead of Generations+, I’m responsible for raising awareness on age diversity topics, cascading information and training events to all employees to foster inclusivity and leverage the strengths of our multigenerational workforce.