As the search narrows for a successor to Chris Viehbacher, who was dismissed last year as CEO of French drugmaker Sanofi, French newspaper Le Figaro has identified Bayer HealthCare head Oliver Brandicourt as the most likely candidate.

The name Brandicourt also has been circulating in pharmaceutical industry circles as a possible replacement. Currently, Sanofi is being managed by supervisory board chairman Serge Weinberg.

It was Weinberger who took responsibility for the October 2014 abrupt dismissal of Viehbacher, the company's first non-French CEO, with whom he disagreed on communications strategy.

Brandicourt, a physician who has headed the Bayer business since 2013, previously worked for Pfizer. Prior to that, he was engaged in malaria research, in France and elsewhere.