Sanofi in $1 billion deal to buy U.S.-based Amunix Pharma
PARIS (Reuters) – Drugmaker Sanofi SA will buy Amunix Pharmaceuticals Inc for an upfront payment of about $1 billion, marking the latest acquisition by the French drugmaker in the U.S. biotech sphere as Sanofi aims to offset COVID-19 vaccine setbacks.
Sanofi, under pressure to revive its drug pipeline and eager to overcome setbacks in the COVID-19 vaccine race, added on Tuesday that it will also pay Amunix up to $225 million based on certain future development milestones.
Your capital is at risk
“We are excited to rapidly advance Amunix’s promising pipeline and to combine their innovative candidate medicines with complementary molecules in Sanofi’s immuno-oncology portfolio,” said John Reed, global head of research and development at Sanofi.
Earlier this year, Sanofi said it would buy two U.S. biotechs, Kadmon Holdings and Translate Bio for $1.9 billion and $3.2 billion, respectively.
The Translate Bio deal has allowed Sanofi to acquire some significant know-how in the field of mRNA technology, which the group is expected to use in a majority of its vaccine-candidates.
Earlier this month, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said they expected data from late-stage clinical trials of its booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the first quarter, instead of this year, marking another delay for the potential shot.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris and Juby Babu in Bangalore; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)