Dispensed: Sanofi's new plan, UnitedHealth's growing bet on medical care, and why Anthem isn't getting into the primary care business

It's been a busy week on the desk I made a very quick trip up to Boston while our editor Zach Tracer spent some time in D.C. Let's get right to the headlines that kept us busy when we weren't in transit.

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We're getting a better sense of where French pharma giant Sanofi is headed under its new CEO Paul Hudson. I read through the presentation so you don't have to and came up with the six slides that are key to where it's headed.

Sanofi just gave a 112-slide presentation on the future of the company. Here are the 6 crucial slides that reveal where the $120 billion pharma giant is headed now.

French pharma giant Sanofi laid out its plan to revamp the entire company under new CEO Paul Hudson in a 112-slide presentation Tuesday.
The plans include major cuts to developing new treatments for diabetes and other metabolic conditions, and pulling back from its joint venture with Verily Onduo, which Hudson said Sanofi "overinvested" in.
Instead, Sanofi plans to invest heavily in six treatments that Hudson and his team see as "potential transformative therapies."

Next, a feature I've been working on for some time: In October, I went around Las Vegas getting a look at Optum's medical center footprint there, in particular its OptumCare Cancer Center.

As I've been reporting on Optum's ambitions to make care its next $100 billion business, this gave me a lot more insight into how the healthcare giant that's part of UnitedHealth Group plans to get there.

OptumCare cancer center lobby Lydia Ramsey/Business Insider

We got a tour of UnitedHealths flashy new cancer center, and it reveals how the healthcare giant is taking a new approach to reshape the health system and lower costs

UnitedHealth Group is best known for operating health-insurance plans, and it provides insurance to more than 50 million people. The company is rapidly expanding in the business of providing healthcare through its OptumCare unit, which now employs or works with more than 46,000 doctors.
UnitedHealth is increasing the types of medical care it provides by expanding into specialties like cancer care.
In October, Business Insider got a look at one of OptumCare's facilities that's focused on cancer treatment. Our tour reveals how the company is planning to dominate US healthcare.
In an investor presentation, UnitedHealth CEO David Wichmann said that the company expected more than half of its 2020 earnings to come from Optum, the business arm of UnitedHealth that runs OptumCare, as well as a tech and consulting operation and a pharmacy benefits manager.

On the flipside of that are folks like Anthem, who are less keen to own medical practices. Anthem's CEO last week laid out why she's not getting into the business and what she'd rather do.

Anthem doesnt want to own your doctor, and the CEO shared why its pursuing a strategy thats the exact opposite of its biggest rival

Health insurers are increasingly getting into the business of owning primary care practices as a way to better control healthcare costs.
But Anthem, the second-largest health insurer in the US, doesn't want to get involved in that business, according to CEO Gail Boudreaux.
"We've been pretty clear that we don't think we need to own primary care," Boudreaux said onstage at the 2019 Forbes Healthcare Summit in December.
Instead, she's working topartner with doctorswith the intent of better managing members' health at an earlier cheaper stage.

UnitedHealth isn't the only one with the potential to upend healthcare, lest we forget the ambitions of big tech players.

The Advisory Board, a consultancy group for hospitals (owned by Optum), in December presented what it thinks Google Health will look like in five years including potentially operating its own electronic medical record. Thanks to the folks at Cantor Fitzgerald for pointing it out.

A top hospital consultant just laid out what Google could do in healthcare over the next 5 years, from creating a medical-records system to helping form a more functional health system

Finally, I'll leave you with a little scoop I had Alphabet's venture arm GV is backing fertility clinic startup Kindbody. Kindbody which I first heard about by seeing a very Instagrammable van offering free blood tests to tell me more about my fertility wants to work directly with employers to offer fertility benefits that it provides in its clinics and virtually.

Kindbody_Mobile_Van Kindbody via PR Newswire

The Soulcycle of fertility clinics just got a $10 million boost from investors led by Alphabets venture arm

Elsewhere in the fertility realm, I've also been following along with the complaint fertility startup Celmatix filed against its research partner 23andMe. The breach of contract lawsuit alleges $100 million in damages, in large part because an investment bank pulled out of leading Celmatix's planned $50 million round. As a result of losing out on new capital, Celmatix halted its genetic test, shut down its lab, and laid off employees.

Read more about what's at play here . I'll be following along to see what 23andMe's official legal response will be to the complaint.

Some other fascinating posts from around the BI newsroom:

Insider did some digging into some dangerous anti-vaccine propaganda Whole Foods has in its checkout aisles.
Jobs reporter Allana Akhtar broke down the 10 cities where doctors make the most money .
There's a surprising amount of healthcare topics going viral on TikTok Aaron Holmes has the story of a former debt collector who's dealt with big medical bills who's now helping others by providing tips on how to navigate medical debt . America!

Phew, I can't believe there's only one more week till we hit the holidays. I'll be curious to see what news will come out of the woodwork between now and then. I'll of course be sure to share what I learn. If the conversations at the Digital Health Innovation Summit in Boston were any indication, it'll be a busy time for healthcare startups going into 2020.

Have any leads on that? Cookie recipes to share? You can reach me at lramsey@businessinsider.com, or you can reach the full team at healthcare@businessinsider.com.

- Lydia

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