Sanofi Space Research

Sanofi Space Research refers to the ISS-based vaccine research run by Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of French pharmaceutical group Sanofi (founded 1973, headquartered in Paris, listed on Euronext Paris as SAN and Nasdaq as SNY, with roughly 83,000 employees). Sanofi uses BioServe Space Technologies as its implementation partner to fly experiments to the International Space Station National Laboratory studying how the microgravity environment affects vaccine performance.

Its documented research includes an 'MDCK Influenza Virus Infection' investigation examining how influenza virus behaves in microgravity, with the goal of informing more effective vaccines, particularly for older adults whose immune response to flu vaccination is typically weaker. According to the ISS National Lab, the project has produced what it described in 2026 as 'unexpected' findings that could help improve vaccine design. Sanofi's ISS research activity is documented from at least 2019 through 2026, and its payloads have flown on ISS cargo resupply missions, including a presence referenced on the SpaceX CRS-21 mission manifest in November 2020.

The ISS National Lab lists Sanofi alongside several other large pharmaceutical companies -- including Merck, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca -- as part of a broader wave of drugmakers using the station to study protein behavior, vaccine formulation and drug stability under conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth. As with those peers, the space research is a minor, specific R&D program within a far larger global pharmaceutical business rather than a separate operating company.