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Sanofi has agreed to spend $470 million to take control of a young biotechnology company and its experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease.
The newly announced acquisition has Sanofi paying $8 for each share of Vigil Neuroscience it doesn’t already own, reflecting a premium of nearly 250% to the price Vigil shares traded at Wednesday afternoon. The French pharmaceutical giant invested $40 million into Vigil last June, and in exchange got an exclusive right to be first in line for deal talks if Vigil chose to license out its platform of small molecule drugs that amplify a protein called TREM2.
The most advanced of those drugs, code-named VG-3927, several months ago completed an early-stage study that enrolled both healthy volunteers and patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Vigil’s president and CEO, Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch, said in a statement that the acquisition should help “fully unlock and accelerate the development of VG-3927.”
A second molecule from the platform, VGL101, is not being acquired by Sanofi. Instead, rights to that molecule will be returned to the original licensor, Amgen.
Neuroscience is one of Sanofi’s core “strategic” research focuses, alongside cancer, rare diseases and the immune system. Yet, in terms of product sales, it pales in comparison to those other three areas. Sanofi’s portfolio lists just one neurology drug, the multiple sclerosis therapy Aubagio, which last year accounted for less than 1% of the 41 billion euros in net sales recorded by the company’s biopharma unit.
Sanofi is trying to grow this pool with a few experimental medicines that have progressed to the later stages of development. One, frexalimab, is what Sanofi touts as a “pipeline-in-a-product” asset, since the company believes it has the potential to treat a range of illnesses, from MS to lupus to diabetes. Another, riliprubart, is being evaluated against “CIPD,” a rare disorder that harms the peripheral nerves, leading to arm and leg weakness.
A third, tolebrutinib, has been tested across different types of MS and is currently being considered for approval by Food and Drug Administration, with a decision deadline set for late September. Sanofi got ahold of tolebrutinib through its $3.7 billion purchase of Principia Biopharma in 2020.
Notably, all of these medicines work by regulating the immune system, which is characteristic of Sanofi’s approach to neurology.