Sanofi pays $700m to expand rare disease portfolio
pharmafile | January 13, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Alnylam, Sanofi, rare sidease
Sanofi and Alnylam have announced the expansion of their 2012 agreement to develop and sell treatments for rare genetic diseases.
The deal, which will be led by Sanofi’s rare disease subsidiary Genzyme, will see the company gain significant rights to Alnylam’s portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical drug candidates.
The firm specialises in RNAi therapeutics, a branch of medicine that investigates the effect of genes when they are turned on and off in cells.
Alnylam will retain most product rights in North America and Western Europe, and will have expanded development and commercial opportunities for its genetic medicine pipeline through Sanofi/Genzyme’s established global infrastructure in rare diseases.
Sanofi will pay $700 million for a 12% stake in Alnylam. The company is buying Alnylam shares for about $80 each – representing a 27% premium compared to their average price over the past 30 days.
The partnership between Sanofi and Alnylam began in 2012, just one year after Sanofi bought the rare genetic disease specialist Genzyme for $20.1 billion.
Sanofi stepped in at the right time for Alnylam as the firm was forced to cut 33% of its staff at the beginning of 2012 due to a lack of funding. This came after Novartis dropped its collaboration with the firm in 2010, meaning it had no external partners to help shore up R&D costs.
David Meeker, Genzyme’s president and chief executive, said: “This collaboration is an important building block for our future. It strengthens our pipeline and provides us with the opportunity to meet the needs of patients with rare diseases around the world through our well-established global organisation.
“This transaction also powerfully underscores Sanofi’s commitment to investing in Genzyme as one of the company’s key growth drivers. Our partnership with Alnylam has been highly collaborative, and their world-class RNAi technology holds the promise to provide a platform for sustained drug development for rare genetic diseases for years to come.”
The 2012 deal saw Sanofi and Alnylam team-up to this exclusive alliance to develop and commercialise Alnylam’s lead product patisiran, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of transthyretin (TTR)-familial amyloid polyneuropathy, a rare life-threatening disease that damages the nervous system.
The expanded deal between Genzyme and Alnylam includes the French firm obtaining more rights to patisiran, where it will now sell the drug everywhere outside of North America and Western Europe.
Genzyme will obtain worldwide rights to sell three products in Alnylam’s pipeline, whilst also having the option up until at least 2020 to develop and sell all products being developed to treat rare genetic diseases outside of Europe and North America.
Alnylam will in addition receive R&D funding, starting on 1 January next year, for programmes where Genzyme has elected to opt-in for development and commercialisation. Further, Alnylam is eligible to receive milestones and royalties from the deal, the companies said.
Ben Adams
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