Sanofi Inks $1.9B Deal With Dren Bio to Buy Autoimmune Disease Drug

Sanofi SNY announced that it signed an agreement with California-based privately held biopharmaceutical company Dren Bio to acquire the latter’s investigational bispecific antibody DR-0201.DR-0201 is a CD20-directed bispecific myeloid cell engager designed to induce deep B-cell depletion. Dren Bio is currently evaluating the drug in two ongoing early-stage studies — B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and autoimmune diseases.Sanofi believes that DR-0201 has the potential to reset the immune system, which can lead to sustained treatment-free remission in patients with refractory B-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, like lupus. The company’s decision to acquire DR-0201 stems from the deep and robust B-cell depletion response seen across ‘pre-clinical and early clinical studies.’Per the terms of the deal, Sanofi will pay $600 million as an upfront payment to Dren Bio. The California-based company will also be eligible to receive up to $1.3 billion in potential milestone payments. The transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, will be financed by Sanofi using its available cash resources.Founded in 2019, Dren Bio has been garnering interest from big pharma for its proprietary bispecific antibody-based technology. In the last three years, this biopharmaceutical company already has signed multi-billion dollar partnerships with bigwigs Novartis NVS and Pfizer PFE for novel cancer therapies. While the PFE deal is valued at more than a billion dollars, the NVS deal is valued at about $3 billion.SNY Stock Price PerformanceYear to date, Sanofi’s shares have risen nearly 22% compared with the industry’s 7% growth. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research What's Sanofi’s Intent Behind the Deal?Through this deal, SNY intends to expand its immunology pipeline and establish itself as a ‘leading immunology company.’ It has a strong immunology and neuro-inflammation pipeline, which includes 12 potential blockbuster assets in phase III development, including amlitelimab, frexalimab and tolebrutinib.The potential success in the development of the above candidates will help the company narrow its dependence on the blockbuster immunology drug Dupixent, which is marketed in collaboration with Regeneron REGN. This drug is currently a key top-line driver for both SNY and REGN. In 2024, Sanofi recorded more than €13 billion from Dupixent product sales, indicating 23% year-over-year growth. The reported Dupixent sales figure accounted for about a third of the company’s total 2024 revenues.Sanofi is also investing in the launches of its new products to optimize its success. It believes that its three new products launched/added in 2023, Altuviiio (for hemophilia A), Beyfortus (for RSV) and Tzield (for type 1 diabetes), together can add up to at least €5 billion in peak sales. Beyfortus achieved blockbuster sales in its first full year of sales in 2024. Altuviiio is expected to achieve blockbuster sales in 2025.Sanofi Price  Sanofi price | Sanofi Quote SNY’s Zacks RanksSanofi currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Zacks Names #1 Semiconductor StockIt's only 1/9,000th the size of NVIDIA which skyrocketed more than +800% since we recommended it. NVIDIA is still strong, but our new top chip stock has much more room to boom.With strong earnings growth and an expanding customer base, it's positioned to feed the rampant demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things. Global semiconductor manufacturing is projected to explode from $452 billion in 2021 to $803 billion by 2028.See This Stock Now for Free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (REGN): Free Stock Analysis Report Sanofi (SNY): Free Stock Analysis Report Novartis AG (NVS): Free Stock Analysis Report Pfizer Inc. (PFE): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks