Sanofi in $1 billion contract to purchase U.S.-based Amunix Pharma

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Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) SA will pay approximately $1 billion for Amunix Pharmaceuticals Inc, the French drugmaker’s fourth acquisition in the U.S. biotech space as Sanofi seeks to offset COVID-19 vaccine shortcomings.

Sanofi, which is under pressure to revitalize its medical pipeline and is eager to overcome setbacks in the COVID-19 vaccination competition, announced on Tuesday that it will also pay Amunix up to $225 million dependent on certain future development milestones.

“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.

Sanofi said earlier this year that it would acquire two U.S. biotech companies, Kadmon Holdings (NASDAQ: KDMN) and Translate Bio (NASDAQ: TBIO), for $1.9 billion and $3.2 billion, respectively.

The Translate Bio acquisition has provided Sanofi with significant know-how in the field of mRNA technology, which the company plans to deploy in the bulk of its vaccine candidates.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) announced earlier this month that they expected data from late-stage clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate’s booster dosage in the first quarter, rather than this year, signaling yet another delay for the possible shot.

Story by : Norvisi Mawunyegah