Why Sanofi craves for Amunix after the vaccine flop
Christmas purchases for the French Sanofi that to forget the disappointments related to the anti Covid vaccines gives itself the US biotech Amunix Pharmaceuticals, but the Stock Exchange …
At the end of September, the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced that it had thrown in the towel regarding an anti Covid vaccine, now it has launched into the purchase of the US biotech Amunix Pharmaceuticals precisely with the aim of overcoming the difficulties related to vaccines.
SANOFI'S PROBLEMS WITH ANTI COVID VACCINES
After the positive results of phases 1 and 2 of its mRNA vaccine trial, Sanofi had decided not to proceed with phase 3, the last step before commercialization if successful, because it would be on the market too late . It was, in fact, the end of September 2021.
As early as December 2020, Sanofi and GSK had announced a delay in their program to develop another Covid vaccine – that time due to the lack of satisfactory effects in the elderly.
However, it cannot yet be said that the company has completely given up on its own vaccine against the virus. Sanofi, together with GSK, is in fact working on a protein vaccine . Final data from the phase 3 trial is expected shortly, but the UK has already ordered 60 million doses.
WHAT AMUNIX DOES
Amunix Pharmaceuticals is an immuno-oncology company aiming to discover and develop transformative T-cell (TCE) engenders and cytokine-based therapies for cancer patients.
THE ACQUISITION
Sanofi announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Amunix Pharmaceuticals, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
The terms provide for an upfront payment of approximately $ 1 billion and up to $ 225 million upon achieving certain results to be achieved in the future.
With the acquisition, Sanofi also hopes to overcome the setbacks reported in the vaccine race.
WHY AMUNIX
“The Amunix technology platform uses a next-generation intelligent biological approach to precisely deliver tailored drugs that become active only in tumor tissues, sparing normal tissues, thus bringing the promise of more effective and safer treatment options for affected patients. from cancer, ”explained John Reed, MD, Ph.D., Global Head of Research & Development, Sanofi.
"We are thrilled to rapidly advance Amunix's promising pipeline – he added – and to combine their innovative drug candidates with complementary molecules in Sanofi's immuno-oncology portfolio."
HOW THE BAG REACTED
Despite the news, points out Milano Finanza , "Sanofi stock opens the session in Paris with a slight decrease (-0.33%) to 86.61 euros, in contrast to the market trend (+ 0.88% Cac40)" .
“According to analysts”, the site continues, “despite the absence of indications on the paid multiple, Sanofi's strategy confirms a trend underway by the main big pharma to focus on the cancer segment. In fact, in the last two years, Sanofi itself has announced the acquisition of other biotech companies active in the oncology segment such as Kladis for approximately 0.3 billion and Synthorx for approximately 2.5 billion ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-sanofi-smania-per-amunix-dopo-il-flop-sui-vaccini/ on Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:20:17 +0000.