PARTNERING
Sanofi and IGM Biosciecens signed a $6 billion collaboration for oncology and immunology
Sanofi and IGM Biosciences announced the signing of an exclusive worldwide collaboration agreement to create, develop, manufacture, and commercialize IgM antibody agonists against three oncology targets and three immunology or inflammation targets. Engineered IgM antibodies represent a new class of potential therapeutics that combine the multi-valency of IgM antibodies possessing 10 binding sites compared to conventional IgG antibodies having only 2 target binding sites. Under the terms of the agreement, IGM will receive a $ 150 million upfront payment. Sanofi has also expressed an interest in purchasing up to $100M of IGM non-voting common stock in a public financing. For each oncology target collaboration program, IGM will lead research and development activities, and assume related costs, through approval of the first BLA for a product directed to that oncology target by the FDA or EMA in exchange for up to $940 million in development and regulatory milestones per oncology target. After receipt of the first marketing approval for a product directed to an oncology target, Sanofi will lead all subsequent development and commercialization activities for that oncology target. For each oncology target, the companies will share profits 50:50 in certain major markets, and IGM will be eligible to receive tiered royalties on net sales in the rest of world. For each immunology or inflammation target collaboration program, IGM will lead research and development activities, and assume related costs, through the completion of Phase 1 clinical trial for up to two constructs directed to each immunology or inflammation target, after which Sanofi will be responsible for all future development and related costs, in exchange for up to $1,065 million in aggregate development and regulatory and commercial milestones per immunology or inflammation target. Following the completion of Phase 1 clinical trial for each immunology or inflammation target, Sanofi will be responsible for subsequent development activities, commercialization efforts, and related costs. IGM is eligible to receive tiered high single-digit to low-teen royalties on global net sales.
Adagene announced SAFEbody multi-target collaboration with Sanofi
Adagene announced a collaboration and exclusive license agreement with Sanofi to generate masked monoclonal and bispecific antibodies for development and commercialization by Sanofi. Adagene will be responsible for early stage research activities to develop masked versions of Sanofi candidate antibodies, using Adagene’s SAFEbody technology. Sanofi will be solely responsible for later stage research and all clinical, product development and commercialization activities. Sanofi will make an upfront payment of $17.5 million to Adagene and will have the ability to advance two initial Sanofi antibody candidates in the collaboration, followed by an option for two additional candidates. Additionally, Adagene will be eligible to receive total potential development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to $2.5 billion for advancement of the candidates, which will be exclusively developed and commercialized by Sanofi. Adagene is eligible to also receive tiered royalties on global net sales of approved collaboration products. SAFEbody technology is designed to address safety and tolerability challenges associated with many antibody therapeutics by using precision masking technology to shield the binding domain of the biologic therapy. Through activation in the tumor microenvironment, this allows for tumor-specific targeting of antibodies, while minimizing on-target off-tumor toxicity in healthy tissues.
