PARIS, July 8 (Reuters) - Sanofi said on Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had accepted for review the filing of a new drug application for its diabetes drug Toujeo.

"With the FDA's acceptance of our submission, we are anticipating the regulatory decision for marketing authorization for Toujeo in the U.S. in the first half of 2015." said Pierre Chancel, Senior Vice President, Global Diabetes at Sanofi.

Toujeo is an improved version of Sanofi's star diabetes drug Lantus, the world's most prescribed insulin that is set to lose patent protection in the United States in February 2015.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon)