There was a board proposal of changing Sanofi-Aventis name to just Sanofi and for this a nod has been given by shareholders at Sanofi-Aventis and that too with an immediate effect.

The decision did not surprise anyone and at Paris the vote was taken at the French drug maker's annual general meeting. The name sounded very long to chief executive Chris Viehbacher since 2008 when he took over as head of Sanofi-Aventis.

In particular, he said, "Then that just using Sanofi made sense especially in some countries, notably China, as a name with so many syllables can be difficult to pronounce."

In 1999 there was a fusion between Germany's Hoechst and France's Rhone-Poulenc and in 2004, Sanofi-Synthelabo acquired the entity and Aventis came about.

Other things that Sanofi will do are to reduce debt and pay attention to its latest purchase, Genzyme Corp, according to the AGM, Viehbacher.

Consumer and animal care will be the areas where the firm is expected to keep an eye out for possible buys.

A new logo will also be taken by Sanofi and it unveiled it also and it has a `the bird of hope' in the centre.